Reflections Divided
by Vile Slanders
Summary: Solomon. Once a man, now a Magikarp. Stuck in a foreign world where man never left a footprint. A world of eat or be eaten. Not a kind world for a Magikarp. Fortunately, the "God" who brought Sol here isn't completely merciless. Sol has been given a mission, and he has been bestowed with powerful allies in its pursuit. But is it enough in this primeval world? Or is Sol just a pawn?
1. Chapter I: Waking Anew

**Vile Slander's Foreword:**

For anyone expressing concern over the fate of "Splitting Horizons," rest easy. I hit a wall in the story. It is not the first wall that I've hit writing "Splitting Horizons." I have a means of dealing with walls that doesn't involve me staring at a computer screen for hours, grudgingly wishing that I could write something. This is my means. I write. Something else. I have started dozens of stories while mounting previous walls, but this is the first fan fic, so I thought, "What the heck? I'll give the shiftless bums on FanFiction something to read while I climb this wall."

So here you are, I present to you the first few rungs of my shiny new ladder.

-P.S. I lied. Splitting Horizons is dead. Good riddance.

 **.**

 **V**

 **...**

 **-A-**

 **..v..**

 **Chapter I: Waking Anew**

 _Hands. Hundreds of hands. Thousands. Stretching, reaching, grasping. Reaching. Reaching for me. White. Gold. Red. Red eyes. Looking at me. Four white legs. A golden cage. Red eyes in a storm of white hands. All focused on me._

 _He speaks without words, in thousands of tongues, speaking. Speaking to me. He tells me to not be frightened, but I am. I'm terrified. Terrified of him. The hands run across my brow, soothing and gentle, but I curl into a ball and weep. He wants something. He wants something from me._

 _He tells me that I have been chosen. He says that he needs my help. He tells me that he has a mission. A mission. A mission for me. I don't want his mission. I don't know who he is. I don't know what he wants. I deny him. I beg for my freedom._

 _He tells me again that he has chosen me, and when I ask to be released, he silences me. I have been chosen. But not by my consent. He wants a willing servant. And if I will not obey him, he will make me obey._

 _The hands change. They stop trying to calm me. They now grasp and pinch, a finger and thumb for every joint. My hands are drowned in their invasive advance, and my arms and legs are hidden beneath the swarm. They tear my clothes and cast them aside. Fingers trace across my bare flesh. Fingers learn the contours of my bones. Fingers run across my chest, seeking. Seeking my heart. Finding my breast, they measure the beating of my heart._

 _He speaks again, and warns me. One last chance. Serve by choice. Or serve by force. But I am weeping. Broken. Lost. His words mean nothing to me. He will take what he wants in violation of my will. I am helpless. I'm just a man. Just a feeble man, in the arms of a God who frightens me. He knows my answer. He knows that I will not serve. Feeble though I am, I do not obey a God._

 _Red. Red eyes. They fall with sorrow. He tells me that he doesn't want to hurt me, and I laugh. I don't believe in his benevolence. A benevolent God does not subjugate free will. He looks at me with pity. He tells me that there will be pain. Much pain._

 _The fingers tighten, twist, and pull. He's tearing me apart while I scream in agony. Stripped of my skin, he peels away my flesh, before separating my bones, piece by piece, joint from joint. It hurts. It hurts so much. But I will not die._

 _My organs are lifted from the ruin, intact and still pulsing with life. My life. He draws it from my beating heart. He's taking something. He's taking something from me. Something that I never really thought about. Something that I always took for granted. He's taking me._

 _I'm drawn like a spark from the defiled remains of my body, leaving the weak flesh to perish. The hands begin to reshape me. They mold me into something new. Shape me into- What am I now?_

 _He's crying. He tells me that he doesn't want to do this. But he must. I've left him no choice. The hands change. They grow pale, transparent, ethereal. They reach into the new me, and begin to strip me of who I am. Like my body, he can reshape my mind._

 _Memories begin to disappear. Faces, voices, laughter, tears. A sunset seen from a bridge flashes before my eyes, before it curls away and withers. A woman laughing, holding me close against her naked form; calling me her lover comes next, and she too is taken from me. A man screaming. A boy crying. A shame and a fear. All stolen. All mine. All lost._

 _He reaches now for a shard. A shard that tells me who I am. I beg him. I plead. I need that shard. I need it to be me. He ceases his raping purge, and looks to me through his own tears of shame and guilt. Please. Please don't take that. I need that. I need my name._

 _The hands withdraw. He has left me with nothing. A body not of my own. No memories of who I am. All the feelings of a blank slate. He has taken everything. Everything, but a name._

 _He tells me of my mission. He says that it is necessary. He says that it will be dangerous. He assures me that I will have aid. He calls me his chosen, and says that he has faith in me. But I don't understand. Who is he? Who am I? What is this mission? Why am I chosen? Why must I do this? He smiles sadly at me. And he speaks a name. My name._

 _Solomon…_

 _..._

"Hey." A voice shook the creature from its sleep. Gaping and flailing, the creature woke with a scream. The waker with a voice fell back.

"Are you okay?" She asked, concerned for this stranger. Gasping with frightened breath, the stranger found his own voice.

"Where am I? Who are you?" The stranger froze upon viewing the owner of the other voice. Black claws. White fur. Four legs. Black face and horns.

"What are you?" He asked in terror. She looks nervous. Clearly startled. Though worried. worried about him.

"I'm an Absol. You're in my bedding." She speaks slowly to the frightened creature.

"An Absol?" He asked, confusion plain in his expression.

"Yeah… an Absol." The Absol said hesitantly. The creature gaped on the ground, air rasping over its drying gills. It seemed disorientated.

"Listen… You don't look so good. Maybe I should get you back into the water. Like, soon?" The Absol suggested. The creature looked up at her, bewildered.

"The water?" He asked, obviously lost. A sense of urgency made the Absol's voice shake.

"Yeah. The water. Like now." The Absol said as she bit on to his dorsal fin, and lifted him from the grass.

The Absol charged through the brush, fighting back her own bewilderment. The Magikarp in her mouth was struggling to stay calm. What was a Magikarp doing this far inland? The ocean was hundreds of miles south, and the nearest river was a day's stride away. How had an oceanic Magikarp ended up in her bedding, far from any source of water?

"Where are you taking me?" The Magikarp asked, the fear very present in his voice.

"Ta da 'ah-tur." She replied, her speech impaired by the fin in her mouth.

"Why the water?" The Magikarp gasped. The Absol snorted in surprise.

"Sa ya dunt die." She tried to sound humorous, but an edge of concern crept into her voice. The Magikarp was silent. She was coming upon it now. The old Trough. Last season's watering hole.

"There." The Absol said as she spat him into the stagnant water. Reflex bade the Magikarp to gulp large quantities of water, passing the stale fluid over his gills.

"Ahhhh…" The Magikarp sighed in sublime bliss. The Absol couldn't help but giggle.

"Feeling better?" She asked.

"Much." The Magikarp answered. The Magikarp fanned his pectoral fins, pushing a swell of water into his mouth. The Absol couldn't stop giggling.

"You're looking better." She smiled. The Magikarp's eyes grew distant as a fresh infusion of oxygen fed his brain.

"Where am I?" He asked, looking up at the Absol. She tilted her head, curious as to his uncertainty.

"I was about to ask what you were doing here. The ocean's a long ways away for a Magikarp." The Absol stated. The Magikarp looked up at her, even more confused.

"Magikarp?" He asked, his voice growing as distant as his gaze.

"Yeah… You. A Magikarp." The Absol said nervously.

"I'm a- a Magikarp?" He asked in an awkward tone.

"What did you think you were? A Diglett?" The Absol laughed.

"What's a Diglett? What's a Magikarp?" The Magikarp asked, worried. The Absol stopped laughing abruptly.

"You're a Magikarp. A Diglett is a furry pest. Technically… They're both food…" The Absol stated in a hesitant manner.

"I'm food?" The Magikarp asked, suddenly wary. The Absol laughed again.

"Don't worry. I already ate. Anyways, I don't really want to eat you. You're too bony and your scales are as hard as rocks." She said reassuringly. The Magikarp relaxed slightly, though his face fell.

"Who am I?"

The Absol stopped smiling. There was something wrong about this Magikarp. Something very wrong.

"Are you feeling okay?" The Absol asked. The Magikarp stopped moving.

"I'm- I'm-"

 _Not a Magikarp?_

"Solomon?" He asked. The Absol quirked her head.

"A Solomon? You look like a Magikarp to me." The Absol said uncertainly.

"I mean, I've only seen a Magikarp once before, but…" The Absol trailed off, noticing the painful expression on the Magikarp's face.

"Solomon. My name is Solomon." He said with the closest thing he had displayed to asseveration yet.

"A name?" It was the Absol's turn to be confused.

"Yeah. My name. Solomon." Solomon replied.

"How did you get a name?" The Absol asked, bewildered.

"It was given to me." Solomon answered. The Absol inclined her head.

"Who gave you a name?" The Absol asked.

 _My parents?_

"I- I…" Solomon staggered. The Absol watched him struggle, an unconscious fear plagued her.

"I don't remember…" Solomon answered in a frightened voice. The Absol swallowed.

"Amnesia?" The Absol asked.

 _No._

"Maybe?" Solomon answered. The Absol chuckled.

"Well, who knows how long you were out of the water. You might have suffered brain damage." The Absol suggested.

 _My head is fine!_

"Brain damage?" Solomon asked, worried.

"Yeah. You know. From asphyxiation?" The Absol elaborated.

 _I don't have amnesia! Why can't I remember?_

"I- I don't know." Solomon answered. The Absol tilted her head, curious.

"I can remember- but then- It just-" Solomon sounded agitated.

"Hey. Just relax. I'm sure that it will all come back to you soon." The Absol tried to sound reassuring.

 _No. No it won't. He took it from me! All of it!_

"I hope so…" Solomon murmured.

 _What's wrong with me? Why can't I say what I want to say?!_

"Cheer up. At least you still remember your... name." The Absol started on a cheery note, but she tapered down into an awkward silence.

"What's wrong?" Solomon asked quietly, fearing he had said something unusual.

"You… really have a name?" The Absol asked faintly.

"Of course I have a name! Don't you?" Solomon seemed distressed. The Absol looked at him oddly.

"I'm Absol. Or the Alpha's daughter. I don't have a name." She answered in an edgy tone, implying that Solomon was the peculiar one for having a name.

"You don't have a name?" Solomon asked, shocked. The Absol shook her head.

"No. I never really thought anything of it. Do all Magikarps have names?"

 _I'M NOT A MAGIKARP!_

"I don't- Maybe?" Solomon was feeling incredibly awkward. The Absol began to laugh again.

"Maybe? You really like that word, don't you?"

 _FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU, YOU STUPID- THING! IT'S ALL GONE! I'M ALL GONE! I- I'm-_

"Maybe?" Solomon answered feebly. The Absol lowered herself down onto her side as she laughed.

"I'm sorry… It's just that… I don't mean to be rude when I say this, but- You're kind of funny." The Absol smiled at Solomon.

 _Funny. Yeah. Ha Ha. I'm totally not crying inside right now…_

"Am I funny? I don't mean to be." The poor fish actually sounded apologetic, earning another round of laughter from the Absol.

"You're actually kind of sweet." She giggled. The Magikarp tensed up.

"Whoa! I didn't mean your flavor! I meant that you're cute… in a sad way…" The Absol said, feeling a bit bashful.

 _Just eat me. Please..._

"I'm sorry." Solomon sank into the water. The Absol looked at him with an ounce of pity, even if she couldn't repress the giggles.

"Stop being so cute. It's obnoxious." The Absol teased.

"And don't apologize. I'm the one being rude." The Absol added, just in time to interrupt the apology Solomon was preparing.

"No. You're helping me. You're not being rude." Solomon said softly. The Absol smiled warmly at him.

 _Yeah, help me. Please kill me._

"And?" The Absol asked teasingly.

"And-?" Solomon asked, worried. The Absol rolled on to her back, and looked at the Magikarp upside down.

"You're welcome." She grinned.

... _Fuck you…_

"Oh, yeah. Thanks. I mean, thank you. I mean- Sorry." Solomon hastily expressed his gratitude, and even more quickly added an apology. The Absol couldn't stop laughing at him.

 _...This is fucking pathetic…_

"I don't want to hear any more sorrys. They make me feel guilty." The Absol giggled. Solomon tightened up a bit. The Absol swallowed.

"Listen… I have to get going. My pack is going to be expecting me. I'd like to get you into a bigger watering hole, but for now… I'd feel better if you'd stay here. Not many predators like drinking from this cesspool, and you'd make for an easy meal. Will you be okay here?" The Absol said hesitantly.

 _...Oh sure… If I'm lucky, this filth will poison me…_

"It's not so bad. There's lots of tasty algae here. It's actually kind of cozy." Solomon said, settling into the slime.

 _I eat algae? Oh, fuck me…_

"Now I never want to eat you. Nasty." The Absol made a face. Solomon grew a shade lighter with embarrassment.

"Anyways, Solomon… Goodbye." The Absol began to walk away.

 _WAIT!_

"Wait!" Solomon cried out. The Absol halted, and turned around.

 _Did I really just say "wait?"_

"Will I get to see you again?" Solomon asked. The Absol smiled.

"Definitely. Sometime tomorrow. After a hunt." The Absol seemed flattered that he wanted to see her again.

"Okay… See you tomorrow… Absol." Solomon sank back into deeper water.

"See you, Solomon." The Absol said fondly, as she turned about and dashed gracefully off into the night.

Solomon disappeared into the depths. This pool wasn't very deep, or very big. A mat of nasty coated the surface, and a swarm of miniscule blue Poliwags fled this giant newcomer as he plunged into the weeds. The water below was cooler, and didn't taste as foul, but a carpet of slime and silt greeted Solomon as he descended.

 _Oh this is nice. Real homely…_

The foreign fish settled near the roots of the weeds, and rested in the goo.

 _Listen me, when I talk, you talk. What I say, you say-_

"Oh! Hello!" Solomon jetted out of his cover when he spied a trio of Barboaches in the silt.

 _-Goddamnit…_

"I'm Solomon. Is this your pool?" Solomon asked guilelessly. The Barboaches ignored him.

 _Will I ever be able to control what I say?_

"Am I disturbing you guys?" Solomon asked. The Barboaches remained silent.

"Oh. You must be sleeping. Do all fish sleep in the dirt?" Solomon asked. The Barboaches didn't answer.

 _I hate me._

"Well um… I'm little new at this, so…" Solomon flailed against an unoccupied stretch of soil, and kicked a cloud of silt up into the water. Slithering into the trench that he had made, Solomon attempted to bury himself.

"This is... interesting…" Solomon murmured, feeling rather uncomfortable.

"Um… Guys? Is it normal for your gills to start… burning?" Solomon asked nervously. The Barboaches began to chuckle.

"Yeah, this… doesn't feel good. Ow. Ow. Ow-OwOWOWOW-OW!" The burning sensation escalated past the point of excruciating. Solomon burst from the silt, and swam in desperate circles. Rushing as much water through his mouth as possible, Solomon tried to rid himself of the stinging silt in his gills. The trio of Barbroaches were roaring with laughter.

 _Fuck you guys!_

"Fuck you guys…" Solomon muttered, returning to his place amongst the roots.

 _Did I just do it again?_

…

 _Red. Red eyes. They look at me, and I see myself in the reflection. Red scales. Yellow barbels. White fins. Me. What has he done to me?_

 _He tells me that this who I am. Not who I will become. In time, I will embrace this, and my role in his plans._

 _I'm crying again, the first tears of these new eyes. I don't remember who I was, but I know that it wasn't this._

 _White. White hands. Reaching, slowly, gently. Gently holding me. He tells me that this is the first trial. A trial he knows that I can overcome. I ignore his words. I need to know. Why? Why me?_

 _The hands wipe away my tears, and softly caress my new body. He tells me that he chose me. Many have my qualities, the qualities that he desires; but of them all, he chose me. I tell him that I never wanted to be chosen. I tell him that I never wanted this to happen. He holds me close against him, his hands smothering me in his embrace. He is weeping, just as I am. He tells me that he is sorry. He tells me that he had to make a choice. A wretched choice. He chose me. He chose me to be the sacrifice._

 _I scream, the fear and dread fill me. A sacrifice? I'm a sacrifice? For what? For him? He silences me, and speaks softly. He tells me that my sacrifice is not for him. It is for a world. A world that is dying. A world he trusts me to save. I cannot speak, even though he has released my voice. I'm overcome._

 _He tells me that I was chosen, because in time, I will understand. And when I do, I will not regret my sacrifice…_

…

Solomon woke. A sound had shaken him, a noise reverberating the water. A noise… A name?

"So-Lo-M-o-N?!" Solomon looked up in alarm. Absol's face had appeared beneath the surface of the water, and she was screaming his name beneath it, her voice distorted by the water.

"I'm here!" Solomon swam from weeds and up before her face. Absol smiled when she saw him, and her head withdrew back into the air, rippling the surface and turning her diffracted form into a wavering mirage.

 _My God, that's creepy…_

Solomon broke the surface, and beheld a giggling Absol on the banks.

"You sleep in late." She laughed.

"Morning Absol!" Solomon said as he gulped in a mouthful of slime, and pressed the water out of his mouth with his tongue. Swallowing the soggy mound of algae that had been squashed against the roof of his mouth, Solomon let loose a content sigh.

 _Did I really just eat that? Okay! Gag reflex! Gag reflex?! Puke it out, dammit!_

"Mmmmh…" Solomon moaned in bliss. Absol made a face, but she was still giggling all the same.

"I don't think that I like watching you eat. It's cute, but… disgusting." Absol said.

 _That. Was not… Cute…_

"Sorry!" Solomon sank deeper under the surface, ashamed. Absol snorted.

"If you're hungry, come here. I brought you something to eat." Absol rolled something blue across the bank and into the water.

"You didn't have to do that…" Solomon sounded touched as he swam closer to Absol, preparing to engulf the blue orb.

 _Please be poisonous, please be poisonous, please be poisonous…_

"It's a berry. I thought it might help you recover." Absol said. No sooner had Solomon crushed the fruit in his mouth than a rich, citrusy, and nutty flavor exploded across his taste buds.

 _Oh wow…_

"Oh wow!" Solomon cried out as he swallowed the berry.

 _There! I did it! I did it again!_

"That was unbelievably good… Oh…" Solomon swam in lazy circles on his side in purile ecstasy. Absol was giggling again.

"I thought that you would like that." Absol chortled.

"Thank you. Thank you so much!" Solomon gave Absol his most sincere gratitude. Absol couldn't stop laughing at the goofy expression on Solomon's face.

"Thank you, Solomon. I haven't laughed like this for… ever…" Absol's happy voice trailed off. She began to withdraw.

 _Oh God. She has baggage._

"Are you okay, Absol?" Solomon swam closer to the distraught creature. She looked up at him in surprise, but the look quickly disappeared behind a smile. A fake smile.

"I'm fine, Solomon. Thanks for asking…"

 _Yeah, you're not fooling anybody._

"Are you sure? You still seem a little sad." Solomon bumped his meaty snout against one of Absol's clawed toes.

"I'm fine. Really." Absol may have spoken the words, but even the pretentious smile had disappeared. Solomon was quite, observing Absol with concern. The silence stretched on into an uncomfortable wait.

"So-" Absol started hoarsely, then cleared her throat.

"Sorry. So um… Did you remember anything?" Absol said in a voice sounding more or less casual.

 _No._

"No." Solomon said, sinking into his own depression. Absol tilted her head.

"I'm sorry." Absol said softly.

 _For what?_

"For what?" Solomon asked glumly.

"I just… I just feel bad for you. It must be scary. And frustrating." Absol answered quietly.

 _You have no idea…_

"You have no idea…" Solomon said in a whisper.

"But-" Solomon perked up alarmingly sudden. Absol looked at him in surprise.

 _Just when I thought that I was in control of my mouth-_

"I feel better when you're around. It's nice to have somebody to talk to." Solomon announced cheerfully.

 _I'm not that big of a sap! Why would I say that?!_

Absol's startled expression softened into a coy smile.

"Aww… You're so sweet, Solomon." Absol cooed.

 _If I had hands, I'd be facepalming right now! This is so cliched!_

"Actually, it's really nice to have someone to talk to. Someone who's not judging me…" Absol murmured.

 _Did you just see that mountain of baggage appear at her feet? Did you?_

"Who would judge you, Absol? You're so nice. How could anyone judge someone who's as nice as you?" Solomon asked, concern rife in his intonation. Absol stiffened, but then she started to giggle again.

 _I AM NOT THIS SAPPY!_

"It's because I'm wildly ugly!" Absol made a goofy face as she spoke in a dramatic voice.

 _Fishing for compliments. Click. No self esteem._

"Are you? I couldn't tell. Is there anything I can do to help?" Solomon asked, completely oblivious to the sarcasm.

 _NO! DO NOT DO THIS TO ME!_

Absol burst out with a high pitched cackle, every breath drawn was punctuated by a snort.

 _Oh my God. She even has an annoying laugh. Kill me now._

"I can't believe you, Solomon… You make me laugh so hard…" Absol gasped when she finally drew enough breath to speak.

"So long as you're happy, I'm happy." Solomon spread his pectoral fins apart in a joyous display. Absol fell to the ground with another fit of giggles.

 _I hate me…_

"Oh, Solomon. You're so sweet."

 _I hate you too._

"You're pretty sweet too, Absol. It… makes it easier… to..." Solomon sank into the water, once more growing depressed.

 _Just let me die…_

"Hey, Solomon?" Absol asked, her voice hesitant.

"Hmm?" Solomon looked back up at her.

"Could I… Could I come back tomorrow? The pack needs me to lead a raid tonight, so I don't have much more time today… But I'd really like to see you again…" Absol asked shyly.

... _Sigh…_

"Of course. Please do. I… want to see you soon again, too." Solomon answered in a sincere tone. Absol looked at him, her sad eyes now accompanied by a sad smile.

 _And in a pathetic way… I actually meant that…_

"Thank you, Solomon. I'll see you tomorrow." Absol murmured warmly as she walked off into the woods. Solomon watched her leave, before swimming over to imbibe more slime.

 _Maybe she's not all bad…_


	2. Chapter II: Externally Internal Dialogue

.

 **.**

 **V**

 **...**

 **-A-**

 **..v..**

 **Chapter II: Externally Internal Dialogue**

 _Fuck this hole, fuck this slime, fuck this puddle-_

Solomon swam down into the depths, humming a cheery ditty. The trio of Barboaches were actively sweeping the bottom of the Trough, siphoning the filth from below, while Solomon scraped algae from the stems and leaves of the water weeds.

 _Fuck those guys, fuck this plant, fuck- STOP FUCKING EATING SHIT!_

Solomon continued to graze on the waving tendrils of goo, ignoring his own furious demands.

 _Fuck you! Fuck you, you stupid fish! That's my mouth! Stop putting shit into it!_

"Would you stop yelling at me?" Solomon asked, irritated.

 _Who the hell is yell- ...Wait a second… You can hear me?_

"Unfortunately." Solomon grumbled, gulping down another sour mass of ick.

 _...Who are you?_

"I'm Solomon." Solomon answered angrily.

 _Nu-uh. Bullshit. I'M Solomon. You're a fish._

"No. I'M Solomon. And you're a mean voice in my head." Solomon took his time eating, making as much a candor of the process as possible. All to spite the voice in his head.

 _Solomon doesn't eat shit. And he's not a complete imbecile._

"Solomon needs to eat, and Solomon isn't a dick." Solomon grumbled back.

... _You're not Solomon._

"Yes I am."

 _Step off. That's my name._

"Well, it's my name too." Solomon growled.

 _No. You're fish. I'm Solomon. You can't have my name._

"Says who? The little voice in my head?" Solomon hissed.

 _My name is Solomon-_

"No, My name is-"

 _YOU CAN'T HAVE IT! MY NAME IS ALL I HAVE LEFT!_

"IT'S ALL I HAVE LEFT TOO!" Solomon screamed back, startling the Barboaches into deeper water. Solomon grew still. The world around him seemed silent. Vacant. Unimportant.

 _...You can't be me. You can't._

"I- Are we- Are we both Solomon?" Solomon asked, frightened.

 _...I don't know… No. No we can't…_

"Do you… Do you remember… Him?" Solomon asked fearfully.

 _...Red eyes. Crying. White hands. Thousands of hands. Tearing. Ripping-_

"You do remember Him…"

 _He did this to me… Why? Why did he do this to me?_

"He did this to us." Solomon gagged.

 _No. Me. Not you. I don't know you. "Solomon" doesn't know you._

"I don't know who you are either. Solomon wasn't a dick." Solomon answered harshly.

 _He wasn't an idiot either!_

"I'm not an idiot!" Solomon shouted. The other voice was laughing. Cruel, frightened, sad laughter.

 _Yes you are. You're the biggest idiot that I've ever seen. And you're me-_

"I'm not you." Solomon growled.

 _You're something of mine. Some piece of me that accompanied the name-_

"I'm not a dick." Solomon whispered. The voice sounded as if it were crying.

 _And I'm something of yours… You, the gurning imbecile. Me, the embittered douche... Are we both Solomon? What he was? Or what he could have been-?_

"What are you talking about?" Solomon asked, worried. The other voice felt smaller, like it was trying to fade away.

 _I don't want this… I can't do this… Please. Please make me disappear…_

"Solomon…"

 _You can have this. You can deal with it better than I can… Just make me go away…_

"I can't do that." Solomon murmured sadly.

 _Why not? You'd be happier. And I- I wouldn't…_

"Listen. I know that I'm… not the smartest. But you are. You see things that I don't. But you're mean. You rarely say anything decent. Maybe we are Solomon. Maybe we're supposed to become him-"

 _You're making me sound crazy, you know that?_

"I'm just saying. You have the brains. I have the heart. I need you. I need you to see what I can't. You need me. You need me to be strong when you can't." Solomon murmured.

 _...You're scared too, aren't you?_

"Of course I'm scared. I'm not supposed to be here. I'm not suppose to be a fish. I'm terrified. But I have to do something. Something other than curse myself to death." Solomon sniffled.

 _The heart, huh? It… It almost makes sense. But still… That's just weird. Why would we be separated?_

"You're the brain. You tell me." Solomon answered. The brain laughed.

 _For being the smart one, all I do is panic and ask questions. I don't have any answers. I don't know any more about this than you do…_

"Maybe I'm suppose to guide you to those answers…" Solomon whispered. The brain laughed mockingly.

 _This is a ridiculous fallacy. A pathetic delusion. The heart leading the brain to the answers? I should be a poet..._

The brain was crying. The heart couldn't get any closer to it. The brain wanted to be left alone. The brain wanted to stop thinking. The brain wanted to go blank, and stay that way. Forever.

"Solomon? Please. Stay with me." Solomon begged, but the voice didn't answer. Despite its desire to be free of thought, the cogs still churned incessantly within it. It couldn't stop thinking. But it it wouldn't answer the heart.

"Would you talk to Absol?" Solomon asked. That clicked. Something sparked in the brain.

 _If I could talk to her. But it seems that my heart runs my mouth as well._

"What if I asked Absol your questions? Would that work?" Solomon asked. The brain sighed.

 _Yeah… As much as I'd like to control my own mouth, it doesn't seem like I can. So I guess that I'll have to talk through my heart- Oh God. I'm a terrible poet…_

"Yes you are. I thought that poetry was an expression of the heart." Solomon chuckled. The brain laughed with him.

 _Yeah… I guess it is. Fine. You be the poet. I'll be the self-demeaning asshole._

"Great. Is it settled then?" Solomon began to calm.

 _Something like that. I don't feel quite as helpless now. But I'm not exactly filled with confidence…_

"Give it time. I'm sure that everything will work out. Anyways… Can I eat now? Without getting bitched at? Because if I don't, then the stomach might join us in this exchange." Solomon joked. The brain snorted.

 _Sure. Knock ourselves out. Just don't eat the brown algae. It looks like shit._

"Okay… What about the red?"

 _Eat the red. It does actually look like food. But don't. Put shit. In our mouth. Again. Please…_

…

 _I see him again. The white hands are gone. He stands alone in a feeble ray of light, surrounded by whirling colors on all sides. Red. Red eyes open. He is smiling at me. He says that I am learning. He tells me not to be afraid. He is watching me. He will take care of me, as much as he is able to. I don't know what to say. I don't know what to feel. I'm afraid of him. Terrified. But I know that he's not trying to hurt me._

 _Why? I ask again. The root of all questions. The futile quantifier. The feeble search. He closes his red eyes. He whispers softly to me, but I cannot hear him. I shout at him. I demand him to speak up. His red eyes open again. He's looking at me fondly. I'm growing angry at his apathy. He made me into his servant. He made me into his slave. And he won't even acknowledge me with an explanation as to why? He sighs now, and tells me to wake up. She is waiting for me. Who? He tells me that it's her. My second trial._

 _My second trial? What trial? I scream again, demanding an answer. His red eyes calmly fall upon me, and he tells me of this trial. My second trial. And his words fill me with dread._

 _I must save her…_

 _...Solomon…_

 _...Solomon?_

 _SOLOMON?_

…

"So-Lo-M-o-N?!" Absol shouted into the water. A cloud of filth swelled from the weeds below, and an eager red fish swam up before her eyes. Absol couldn't help but smile. He was just so adorable. Solomon gave her his happiest grin, and swam in a circle below her face, gently caressing the tip of her nose with his tail. Absol had to pull her head out of the water. If she laughed now, she might drown.

"Was that a kiss?" Absol teased Solomon when they both had breached the surface of the water.

"Um… I don't really know… Maybe?" Solomon looked deeply embarrassed. Absol shook her head with the giggles.

"I was just happy to see you… I didn't mean to-" Absol felt a new well of giggles bubble in her gut. Solomon was the most awkward creature she had ever come across.

"I'm just teasing you, Solomon. Don't get all flustered. It was cute." Absol swallowed the giggles. She had to fight them back constantly when she was anywhere near Solomon. If Absol's pack saw her laughing this much, they would think that there was something wrong with her.

"Anyways, I brought you another berry. It's a different berry this time, so maybe this one will help you remember." Absol rolled a green bumpy berry into the water. Solomon's eyes lit up, and that goofy expression shook Absol with another bout of giggles. Solomon swam for the berry, but then he stopped, a look of horror in his eyes as they fell on Absol.

"What's wrong, Solomon? Are you allergic to that berry?" Absol tensed with worry.

"Absol- You're- You're hurt…" Solomon spoke in a shaky voice. Absol looked at the shiny bloodstain on her side.

"Naw, it's just a battle wound. The Pyroars didn't feel like paying us tribute this month, so we went and collected it." Absol shrugged off the burn.

"Coll-collected-?" Solomon asked, shaken.

"Yeah. Like when they don't leave us a sizable kill, then we have to go and extract one. We have to remind them that they're only allowed to hunt in our lands by the grace of my father." Absol answered.

"You- took a kill?" Solomon asked nervously. Absol snorted.

"Made a kill. If the Pyroars' Alpha doesn't want to obey us, then we eat him. And the next Alpha learns that it's best to play by our rules. Otherwise, we'll eat him too." Absol explained casually.

"And he- He burned you?" Solomon's voice was getting weaker.

"It's not a bad burn, Solomon. I've had a lot worse. My father likes having me take care of disobedient Alphas personally. It proves our pack's strength. If the Alpha Absol's daughter can best the Pyroar's own Alpha, what does that say about the strength of our Alpha?" Absol continued nonchalantly. Solomon was turning pale.

"Why do the Pyroars have to pay you tribute?" Solomon asked.

"Because we made a deal with them, just like the deals we have made with so many other packs. The Absols own everything between the White Fault and and the Rose Hills. We have the strongest pack for hundreds of miles, and the largest and most bountiful territory. It's easier for us to allow other packs to hunt in our territory than it is to drive them all away. But if they want to hunt in our lands, then they owe us tribute. The Pyroars seemed to think that this rule didn't apply to them. So my father sent a raid last night to remind them of their debt." Absol looked at Solomon curiously. He was regarding her with… fear?

"So you killed their leader?" Solomon asked, his voice cracking.

"In one on one combat. Then I presented his corpse to my father. The Alpha has the rights to the first meal. After that, My father's Beta and I got to eat. We made sure that the rest of the Pyroars stuck around, so that they all got the message. Pay us our tribute, and we won't eat you." Absol was watching Solomon intently. He seemed incredibly distressed over her involvement in the raid.

"Sol… What's wrong?" Absol had a nagging suspicion. She knew why he was shaking. She saw the shifty eyes of the prey.

"Sol-" Absol warned, but Solomon dove into the water, like prey trying to escape the predator.

"SOL!" Absol was getting angry. Couldn't he put two and two together? Absol dove into the fetid water after him. Solomon was quick in the water, but in the confines of the Trough, he could never hope to escape her. Absol grabbed his tail in her teeth, and pulled the flailing Solomon out of the weeds with ease. Breaking the surface of the Trough, Absol tossed her head, shaking the water from her fur, and jarring the fish in her mouth. Striding calmly to the bank, Absol spat Solomon into the shallow mud.

"Listen you." Absol growled, pressing down on him with a claw. He gaped up at her in fear.

"I can kill you. I've had plenty of opportunity to kill you. I could have just thrown you off my bedding and let you rot on the night that we first met. I don't want to kill you. I like you, even if you are food. So remember that." Absol removed her paw. Solomon just looked up at her in sorrow.

"But you killed someone just because he didn't-" Solomon could barely speak. Absol stiffened. Was that why he had tried to run from her?

"What is wrong with you, Sol? Where have you been? In this world, it's kill or be killed. Eat, or be eaten! Did you really come from the ocean? Because from what I've heard, that place is an even more brutal hunting ground than my pack's territory!" Absol was flabbergasted at this revelation. Was he really that naive?

"But you- You seemed so nice…" Solomon whimpered. Absol froze. Seemed? That hurt.

"I am nice, Sol. I'm the nicest apex predator that you'll ever meet. And if I was you, I would hope to high heaven that this nice Absol is the only apex predator that I'd _ever_ meet." Absol growled. Why? Why did he make her feel ashamed?

"Absol…" Solomon was crying. Absol became livid. Crying. Was he really that weak?

"Get back in your puddle, Solomon. I don't ever want to see you again." Absol whispered darkly, as she stalked off. Leaving him in the mud to weep.

 _Why? Why am I ashamed?_ Absol thought to herself as she ran through the brush. She could still hear him sobbing. Tears of loss. Tears spilled for her.

 _What is wrong with him?! How has he lived this long and not learned all of this by now?_ Absol growled as a branch whipped her cheek. She felt something warm trickle below her eye. She growled. Now she was hurting herself over this. Why did she even care?

 _Because I lost him. My goofy fish… The one person I thought I could talk to… He's gone…_ Absol choked. She shook herself viciously, diving headlong into a heavy bush. She came out the otherside with new scratches for her collection, and fresh leaves caught in her fur.

 _It's not my fault that he can't accept reality. It's not my fault that he's prey and I'm a predator. It's not my fault…_

Absol came to a standstill before a puddle. She looked at her reflection in the water. And froze.

 _Are… Are those… mine?_ Absol asked herself in feeble voice. Tears. Tears were running down her cheeks. Not blood from scratches. Tears. Who had put those on her face?

 _Solomon? How?_ Absol began to break. She hadn't cried since she was a cub. She hadn't cried once since that day…

 _Sol… Why?_ She could hear him. Screaming for her to save him. He was drowning. He was drowning because of her prank. But she couldn't save him- She had barely made it out herself- The water was moving too fast-

 _Little brother…_ Absol collapsed into the puddle, and wept bitterly into the mud.

…

Solomon looked up into the midnight sky. He had flopped his way back into the water hours ago, but he hadn't left the surface since. She was gone. The one person who could bring him comfort. The one person who would speak with him. The person that he was supposed to save.

"How?" Solomon asked in a weakened voice.

"How am I supposed to save her?"

 _We're not. We can't. We can't do anything…_

"We have to… She's worth saving!" Solomon argued with the brain. The brain let loose a weeping laugh.

 _Look at us. We're pathetic. We're a joke. We're weak. We can't even save ourselves. How can we save someone else? How?_

"But we have too…"

 _Why? Because "he" told us to?_

"No. Think of Absol. Don't you want to save her?" Solomon asked fervently. The brain snorted.

 _She's fine. She's more than capable of taking care of herself. She's strong, and she has a strong pack. She doesn't need to be saved…_

"Maybe He didn't mean, 'save her life.' Maybe He meant for us to save something else…"

 _Oh, here we go. Tell me, mister poet. What are we supposed to save?_

"Her. From herself." Solomon said softly. The other voice laughed.

 _She doesn't have a problem with what she is. She's a monster. Absol doesn't need to be saved._

"If Absol is a monster, then why did she save us?" Solomon murmured. The other voice grew quiet for a moment.

 _Just your daily reminder. I hate me…_

"Sol?" Solomon jumped at the sound of that timid voice.

 _Oh fuck me- Was she listening?_

"Who were you talking to, Sol?" Absol left the cover of the brush.

 _Oh shit-_

"Just… Someone." Solomon swallowed. Absol looked hurt. This wasn't the giggling Absol. This wasn't the predator Absol. This was an Absol that Solomon had seen only hints of. This was the lost Absol.

"Somebody... you knew?" Absol asked faintly. Solomon looked away.

"Something like that…" Solomon murmured.

 _Oh… That was real smooth… Touche._

"Sol… I- I didn't mean to scare you. I hope I didn't hurt you. I-" Absol's breath caught in her throat. He was swimming towards her. He was coming back to her?

"Did I hurt you?" Absol choked.

"Absol… Please. Just talk. I want to hear your voice. I want to know that you're still..." Solomon shuddered.

 _...Wow…_

"Sol… You're right. I am a monster. I'm the worst monster there is- I-" Absol began to cry. She was seeing his terrified face again, right before he was pulled under the river-

"Absol. You aren't a monster-"

"Yes I am! Even my father thinks I'm a monster! And he- he- He would still-" Absol began to cry.

 _Mayday, Mayday, Mayday-_

"Would a monster bring a weakling like me berries? Would a monster offer comfort to the meek? What kind of monster saves a dying stranger, and asks for nothing in return?" Solomon asked. Absol looked up with a jerk of her head, surprise widening her wet eyes.

 _...Goddamn, I'm good…_

"Sol… I did something terrible… Something awful. I can't make that right-"

"You don't have to. We all do terrible things. Those things don't make us monsters. What we learn from those things determines whether or not we are monsters. What did you learn, Absol?" Solomon asked softly.

 _I am writing this shit down. Just so you know._

"Regret. Remorse. Guilt. Loss. Pain…" Absol answered as more tears choked her.

"Monsters don't feel regret, Absol. Monsters don't know guilt or remorse. You're not a monster. Maybe you committed a crime, but did that crime change you?" Solomon asked. Absol retched.

"Yes…"

"Then you're not a monster. Monsters don't repent." Solomon whispered.

 _Define "Monster."_

"You." Solomon growled to the brain.

"What?" Absol asked, startled.

"You- You… You're cute?" Solomon tried.

 _WHAT DID I JUST SAY?_

"What did you just… did you just call me cute?" Absol choked, her voice rank with accusation.

"M-Maybe?" Solomon answered nervously, shrinking into the water.

 _...You are such a failure…_

A watery giggle. Laughter. A cackle rife with snorts.

 _Is she actually-?_

"Absol?" Solomon asked, worried. But All Absol could do was laugh, laugh in that nasally, shrill, grating, snorting laughter.

"Sol… You little sweetheart. Come here." Absol gasped.

 _Danger! Danger! Danger!_

Solomon swam up to Absol, who marched deeper into the Trough. The two paused less than a foot apart. Solomon was level with Absol's sternum. She was smiling warmly at him.

 _Warning! Warning!_

Absol stooped low, and gave Sol a light peck on his forehead.

 _Stranger danger?!_

"That-" Absol began pulling back with a smirk.

"-Was a kiss." Absol teased, as the fish below her began to change color.

"For my sweet little Sol." Absol cooed as she nuzzled Solomon's dorsal fin.

 _Oh boy…_

…

 _White. White hands. They swarm around me. Laughter. I hear his laughter. He is happy. He is proud. Of me. Me? He draws me into his embrace, and I see him once more._

 _Red. Red eyes. They are laughing too, joyous as they fall upon me. I don't know what to think. Is he really evil? Is he really my tormentor?_

 _He speaks now, in a thousand tongues. He speaks without words. He tells me that I can do it. He tells me that I have embraced the second trial. He tells me that he knew I would._

 _Why? My ceaseless question. But not "Why?" Why. Why does he have faith in me? He laughs again, even more loudly, even more joyous. And I know. I know why. It's because I'm beginning to accept my role._

 _She is worth it. It's what I tell him. He looks at me sadly, and his laughter fades. This isn't the end of the second trial. This is only the beginning of it. And there will be more. So many more trials. Trials that I might fail. But he has faith. He has faith in me. And now… I think I might have faith in me as well..._


	3. Chapter III: D-t-L, R-t-L

.

 **.**

 **V**

 **...**

 **-A-**

 **..v..**

 **Chapter III: Dissolving the Limestone, Revealing the Landscape**

Absol approached the Trough quietly. Circling the rancid water, Absol checked the site for any unusual prints or scents. A quick whiff of the wind told her that she was alone. Placing a paw within the pool, Absol splashed it three times. After counting down from five to zero, Absol splashed twice more. Their signal for "All clear."

Solomon's red scaled head popped up from the grime. Whirling about, Solomon sought Absol's location, and ended up wrapping himself in a carpet of threads and slime. Upon spying her location on the bank, his eyes lit up, and his fins quivered joyfully. Absol still giggled every time he did this. Swimming towards her, dragging his veil of ooze with him, Solomon entered the shallow water at Absol's feet.

"Ah-! Get rid of the yuck." Absol backpedaled as as the entire surface of the pond moved towards her. Solomon sheepishly shook himself free of the gunk, sank, and then resurfaced clean. More or less.

"You missed a strand." Absol leaned down to pluck a straggling dreg from Solomon's dorsal fin. Using her teeth to remove it, Absol quickly spat the foul grime out.

"Peh! Ugh… You actually eat that stuff?" A disgusted Absol asked, licking the inside of her mouth in agitation.

"No, I don't eat the brown. I don't like putting shit in my mouth." Solomon stated matter-of-factly. Absol spat all over him as she exploded with laughter. Only Sol…

"I'm sorry, Sol! I didn't mean to spit on you!" Absol wheezed.

"It's okay… I kind of live in spit." Solomon answered, completely at ease. Absol just couldn't stop laughing.

"Here… let me get my spit off of you." Absol chuckled as she leaned down to clean Sol's face with her tongue.

 _Yeah, great. Wash that spit off of me. Using your spit. Makes perfect sense…_

"There- all… clean." Absol chided in between licks. Solomon was changing color again, forcing her to suppress the giggles. He seemed embarrassed to be on the receiving end of her tongue.

"Uck. You taste fishy." Absol made a face.

 _What did you think that I was going to taste like? Cloves and cinnamon?_

"Um- Sorry? I guess-?" Solomon mumbled from the water.

"Stop apologizing. I brought you to live in this spit-pit. If you taste funny, then it's all my fault." Absol teased.

 _Yeah, but clean water is so overrated. I mean, when was the last time that you wanted to breathe clean air?_

Solomon lowered his mouth under the water, and started to blow bubbles. Absol began to laugh. Solomon had recently started doing this whenever he became nervous.

"Stop it." Solomon said angrily to the brain, when a layer of water and bubbles concealed his words from Absol.

 _What am I doing wrong? I'm just commenting on how pleasant it is to inhale clean water. I've never tried it before, but I'm sure that it's great..._

"Ass." Solomon muttered before resurfacing.

"Having fun down there?" Absol grinned when Solomon had ceased producing bubbles.

"Of course! Why wouldn't I?" Solomon looked up at Absol happily. Absol snorted.

"You're such a goofball, Solomon." Absol said, as she settled down on sunbaked rock with a groan.

"So… about yesterday's question?" Absol began as she laid down.

 _The one about the pack's hierarchy?_

"The one about the pack's hierarchy?" Solomon repeated the brain's question.

"Yeah, about the Alpha-Beta relationship. The one that I didn't get to answer before having to leave for a hunt." Absol smiled slowly at Solomon. Solomon eagerly awaited an answer, but instead of relaying the information, Absol's smile only grew larger.

 _And-?_ The brain asked, impatient.

"And?" Solomon asked pleasantly. Absol began to giggle.

 _Oh come on!_

"Oh come-! On…" Solomon faltered when he realized that he wasn't suppose to repeat that part.

 _Smooth... Real smooth. You're killing me, heart. You're really killing me here…_

"I'll tell you, Sol… If you promise me something…" Absol's voice became deeper and mischievous.

 _Oh God. Please tell me that she's not-_

"Anything for you, Absol!" Solomon spread his pectoral fins wide with a smile, completely oblivious to the brain's concern. Absol giggled. Solomon was too cute. Sickenly so.

"I'll tell you about the Alpha-Beta relationship… If-"

 _Here it comes! Plug your ears, kid!_

"-If you promise to think of a name for me at the end of the day."

 _...Oh._

"Oh?" Solomon seemed startled with the request.

 _...Given the line of conversation, and in regards to the question that we asked; Is it really a bad thing that my mind went there?_

"Well? Is it too much to ask?" Absol seemed a little shy about her request.

 _I can think of a few. How about-_

"THAT'S A REAL GOOD IDEA, ABSOL. YEAH, I THINK IT'S GREAT. I CAN DEFINITELY DO THAT FOR YOU!" Solomon shouted, trying to drown out the stream of obscenities being spewed from the brain.

"I'M GLAD TO HEAR THAT!" Absol laughed.

"BY THE WAY, WHY ARE WE SHOUTING?"

"YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW." Solomon shouted back. Plunging his head under the water, Solomon began to blow bubbles again.

 _-Carpet-muncher, Ass-sniffer, Ass-whiffer, Ass-LICKER, Quadra-Dike, Fuzzy-Butt-Skins, Saucey-ForeSKINS-_

"SHUT UP!" Solomon roared under the water.

 _-What?! I can't make suggestions?!_ The brained cried out in indignation.

"Stop. Being. AN ASSHOLE!" Solomon screamed himself hoarse, before returning to the surface. Absol was on her back, wheezing in pain from all the laughter.

"I don't have a clue what that was all about, but it was funny…" Absol hacked for breath.

 _See?! She appreciates my suggestions!_

"I'm sorry…" Solomon sank into the water, ashamed.

"Stop it, Solomon. Or you're really going to hurt me- No, I'm not being serious… But you give my diaphragm such a workout…" Absol choked.

 _Can I say it?!_

"No…" Solomon mumbled weakly into the water. But it wasn't going to stop the brain.

 _THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID!_

"Are you okay, Sol? You look a little… ill…" Absol seemed concerned about this color change.

"I'm fine… I'm just thinking of a name…" Solomon mumbled, still hideously guilty for having such a dirty brain.

"Really? Have you got any yet?"

 _Start with Quadra-Dike. I'm thinking about coining that gem-_

"Gem? No… Jade? Mmm… No. Amber! But it doesn't match- Crystal-!"

"Crystal! I like Crystal!" Absol perked up at that one.

 _Tell her that she wouldn't like the stereotype that accompanies that name-_

"I don't think that you would like Crystal… It has an association with a stereotype…" Solomon muttered glumly.

"Oh. Then why did you suggest it?" Absol asked, confused.

 _Because the stereotype suits you?_

"I was just rattling off what came to mind. Hmm…" Solomon glared into the depths of the Trough as he pondered a name for Absol.

 _...Ask her why she wants a name._

"Absol? Is there… a reason you would like a name?" Solomon asked. Absol tensed up a bit.

"Does it matter?" Absol mumbled.

 _Tell her that it will help us pick one that's right for her._

"Well… I suppose not, but- It might be easier to pick a name if I knew why…" Solomon could tell that there was something personal in this for Absol.

"Sol… You remember what I told you about… Not really getting along with the rest of my pack?" Absol answered reluctantly.

"Yeah. I also remember you saying that they only obeyed you because your father is the Alpha. And that you're one of their best Routers." Sol answered, recalling a conversation held a few days past.

"Yeah, well… Most of them would rather have me serve as an Omega. Or they try to treat me like one when they think I'm not listening." Absol murmured.

"But why? You hold the third highest rank in the pack, and from what you've told me, you earned it. Why don't they respect you?" Solomon asked, confused. Absol's claws pulled inward as she stared down at the rock beneath her.

"Something happened in my childhood. Let's just say that I wasn't supposed to be the third highest rank in the pack. But because of that… event… I ended up next in line, and my father had no choice but to train me as a Router. His Router. His heir." Absol mumbled into her mane.

"You don't want to talk about it?" Solomon asked softly. Absol shook her head.

"It has nothing to do with you, Sol… I just… don't like bringing up the past." Absol whispered glumly.

"I just want a name. I just want a name from you." Absol sighed silently.

 _And this is part where you think of a name-_

"How about Cheyenne?" Solomon asked. Absol made a revolted face.

"Is that like a skin disease or something?" Absol asked, suspicious.

"No… It's not a disease… This is really hard…" Solomon grew pensive. Absol smiled at him, her sadness was beginning to melt away.

"You're really giving this a lot of thought, aren't you?" Absol asked, feeling heartened by Solomon's commitment to her name.

 _Thought. *Snort* Don't hurt yourself._

"I want you to have the perfect name…" Solomon muttered, deep in thought. Absol let loose a light chuckle.

"You're so sweet, Sol. Anyways…" Absol cleared her throat. Solomon looked back up at her.

"The Alpha is the highest rank in a pack. He's the strongest and wisest male the pack has, and he earned his position by ousting the previous Alpha in one on one combat. The Alpha always eats first, regardless of who made the kill. In smaller packs, the Alpha is also the only one to mate, but our pack is so large that he can't possibly breed with all of the females. That, and we need to keep the bloodline pure. Our Alpha still maintains the right to first mate, so he can choose whatever female he desires from the pack to bear his offspring, at any time he wants." Absol explained.

"The Beta is the chief female, and the preferred mate of the Alpha. Betas get to eat second, although my father's Beta has to share her meals with me. Comes from me being both the lead Router and the Alpha's daughter. The Beta isn't too happy about it, but unless she can actually make a cub from my father's barren seed, then there's nothing that she can do about it. Either she produces the next Alpha, or my father will expect me to. Betas are always the strongest females, and always unrelated to the Alpha, because the Alpha desires strong cubs. My family has ruled our pack from its founding. Chiefly because our ancestors were the strongest Absols in the pack, and we have maintained those superior traits throughout thousands of years by wisely choosing our mates." Absol finished her exposition on the Alpha-Beta relationship.

 _Fascinating…_

"Fascinating…" Sol murmured. Absol started laughing again.

"You actually understood all of that?" Absol asked, surprised.

 _I did._

"I did. The Alpha is the leader, and the Beta is his mate. It makes perfect sense." Solomon clarified the abridged version with a guileless smile on his face.

 _I hate me…_

Absol just shook her head, giggling.

"I don't know where you get these questions from, Sol, but…" Absol sighed with a touch of exasperation.

 _Yeah. Thanks. Thanks, heart. Thanks for making me look like an idiot._

"I'm sorry…" Sol sank beneath their combined disappointment.

"For what, Sol? You can't be sorry for everything. It's probably my fault for making it too complex." Absol smiled at him, trying to raise the ashamed fish's spirits.

 _The worst part of this is that she's pitying me too… But for the wrong reason…_

"Absol… I know… that I'm-" Solomon began, his avoidant expression reflecting her earlier depression.

"Nope. Not hearing it." Absol cut Solomon off. Solomon looked up at her, eyes still heavy.

"Sol, I know plenty of smart creatures. Lots of smart creatures. And a lot of them, I'd be happier not knowing. But I only know one kindhearted creature. You." Absol said, giving him a fond smile.

"Sheez, Sol… Every smart creature I know is a douche." Absol chortled.

"Same here…" Sol murmured.

 _Careful, wiseguy. You could be referring to her too…_

"So you know what, Sol? I don't want you to be the smartest. I like you just the way you are. Sweet. Innocent. And a little naive. Your naivety makes you that much more cute." Absol tilted her head with a soft smile. Solomon began to flutter his fins excitably.

 _Don't tell her about me. Ever. She'll never talk to us again._

"Still, I'm curious. You ask all these complex questions, you pay attention to every word… Are you really learning something?" Absol asked, her voice a tad mystified.

 _Oh yeah. I'm not even sure if she sees the correlations-_

"A little. I have to try. I'll never be the smartest, but I don't have to be the dumbest either." Solomon answered with a shy smile. Absol chuckled warmly.

"You really are one of kind, Sol. Only you. Only you…" Absol sighed as she stared off into the distance.

 _Ahem. A name? Like now?_

"Serena?" Solomon suggested. Absol snapped out of her trance.

"Serana? I don't know, Sol…" Absol sighed.

 _Try Karst._

Solomon sank below the water, and began blowing bubbles again.

"What does it mean?" Solomon asked, suspicious.

 _Whoa. Chillax. Karst. It's a geological term. It defines a landscape of dissolved limestone._

"And why would Absol want to be named after a field of rocks?" Solomon asked angrily.

 _Because a Karst is mysterious. It may look foreboding at a distance, but it's a landscape of wonders. Beautiful wonders that you won't see anywhere else._

Solomon stopped his bubbling. He lifted his head above the water.

"Absol?" Solomon asked nervously.

"Hmm?" Absol looked at him oddly.

"What about… what about Karst?" Solomon asked carefully.

"Karst? Karst. Kahr-sss-tuh. Karst…" Absol tried the name out, rolling every sound off of her tongue.

"Karst. Hmm… It's simple, but elegant. And it sounds… Dangerous…" Karst smiled.

 _Tell her it's a perfect fit. Except for the simple part, you idiot._

"It suits you. It does sound elegant and dangerous… And beautiful." Solomon murmured.

 _Nice add. High-five._

"Karst. Karst and Sol. Yeah… I like that." Karst turned to Solomon with a slightly wild look in her eye.

"I like it a lot." Karst smiled at Solomon with the predator's smirk.

 _Did she really just say that? "Karst and Sol?"_

"Really?" Solomon asked, hope filling his voice.

"Can I keep the name?" Karst asked, looking slightly worried.

"Of course! It's your name after all!" Solomon threw his pectoral fins up with his goofy smile. Karst began to laugh.

"So now I'm Karst. Sol… You gave me a name…" Karst left the rock, and entered the trough. Approaching Solomon with a soft smile playing on her lips, Karst's stride seemed even more regal than before. Running her nose from the tip of Solomon's snout to the end of his tail, Karst prompted a shudder of pleasure from the goofy fish.

"...I think that's the nicest thing that anyone has ever given me…" Karst giggled as Solomon's blissful seizure gently splashed her shoulders.

 _Careful dude, we just about came right there-_

"Shut up." Solomon grumbled.

"What?!" Karst sounded startled.

 _Smooth, dumbass! So not making the second date. You click._

"Shut up, Karst. That's not the nicest thing that you ever received." Solomon sounded bashful as he started to change color. Karst began to giggle.

 _Now that was a good save. Bravo._

"I don't know about you, Sol… I just don't know…" Karst giggled as she settled into the water, and curled around the startled fish.

…

 _Red. Red eyes. Red eyes laughing. White. White hands. White hands raising. Raising up. Raising me up to his eyes. I'm cold to this. All of this. I still don't know what I feel when I dream this. Do I dream this?_

 _He's laughing. He wants to know why I'm not asking questions. He's asking me a question? The God is asking me? I tell him that I would rather seek the answers. He's laughing even harder._

 _He wants to know what answers I'm seeking. I ask him why he's asking. The laughter grows louder, but I am still unmoved by it._

 _He wants me to find those answers. He says that I'm on the right path. Soon. Very Soon. The second trial will end, and the third will begin. A question nags at me, but I won't ask it. I know that he won't answer. I don't think that I want him to._

 _Red. Red eyes. Red eyes falling. Red eyes falling with grief. I don't want to ask, but I must. I must know what saddens him, and how it pertains to me._

 _He tells me that the third trial is a choice. A choice that I must make. It will cost me something, regardless of what I choose. I won't ask what choices. I'm seeking the answers. I don't want his guidance. He chuckles. He's still sad, but not for the third trial. He's sad because of me. This I do want to know why. How have I spat in the eye of God? Tell me how I've wounded you._

 _He sighs. He seems hesitant. He doesn't know how to reach me through my hostility. But he tells me that he is proud. Proud of me. Proud of his chosen. I tense up. I don't consider myself his chosen. I'm not his slave. He laughs again. He tells me that I am more to him than a slave. That I am more to him than a servant. I sneer at him. I don't believe a word he has spoken. I tell him to release me. I don't beg. I don't beg anything of "God."_

 _Red. Red eyes. Red eyes crying. He's crying, and I gloat in his weakness. I tell him not to speak with me again, and he grows angry. White. White hands. With his white hands, He's punishing me, like the God that he is. Not the God that he wants me to believe in. I tell him this through the screams. He stops hurting me. Now he really is crying._

 _He tells me to leave, and he will contact me again on the conclusion of the third trial. He will not aid me in either the third or the remainder of the second. I tell him that I never wanted his aid. He wanted mine. He tells me to leave now, before he punishes me again. I laugh as I slip back into my worldly dreams. I have found the crack in God's armor. And if I can make God bleed…_


	4. Chapter IV: Terminal Cerebral Flatus

.

 **.**

 **V**

 **...**

 **-A-**

 **..v..**

 **Chapter IV: Terminal Cerebral Flatus**

Karst charged through the undergrowth on her way to the Trough, her breath already ragged. She was exhausted. Overhead, foreboding storm clouds formed where pristine blue skies had wafted only days before. Karst hadn't been to the Trough for almost two weeks. The storm season had come early this year, and her pack was making hasty preparations for the onset of the storms.

This was a crucial turning point for the pack. The migratory herds would be leaving the Great Expanse and crossing the Rose Hills, in an effort to stay ahead of the storms. The herds were making for the Barren Plains, which would be transformed by the storms into a lush and fertile oasis of green food and water. Plenty of food for the herds, but the wet terrain and lack of cover in the Barren Plains would make hunting incredibly difficult for the packs.

The herds were racing the storms for the Barren Plains, but in order to succeed in this venture, the herds needed to traverse the treacherous White Fault before the first rains fell. Otherwise, flooding would make the White Fault impassable for the rest of the storm season, leaving the herds stranded in the Absols' territory. The Grave Stretch.

The White Fault was the primary reason the Absols had an indisputable claim to the title of strongest pack in the Core Delta. Their pack had held the Grave Stretch for almost a millennia. The Absols were the very reason this territory had earned the moniker, "The Grave Stretch."

The Grave Stretch was situated on the most inland part of the Core Delta. It was the crossroads between the Great Expanse and the Barren Plains. The Grave Stretch itself was a fertile banquet throughout all of the seasons, for both predator and prey. It was far enough inland to be spared the lashing storms of the ocean, yet close enough to the head of the tributaries to have plentiful water year round for both Flora and Fauna. But despite the Grave Stretch's status as a paradise, the Absols' pack could not have grown to the size it had without the storm seasons and the White Fault.

When the herds abandoned the drying Great Expanse and plunged into the Core Delta for want of the Barren Field's fresh bounty, they had to cross from the Rose Hills and into the Grave Stretch. The only feasible route to the Barren Field was across the White Fault. The Absols used the White Fault to trap herds in the Grave Stretch, by waylaying the herd's advance, and stalling them until the storms flooded the Core Delta. Once the White Fault had flooded, it would become a deadly torrent that no herd would dare cross. With the choice of either returning to the dying Great Expanse, or partaking of the Core Delta's rich offerings, any herd that dreamed of surviving the storm season stayed within the Core Delta. Massive herds. Massive scores of prey.

The trapped herds were essential to the Absols' continued prosperity. The Absols had been utilizing the White Fault, and the storm seasons, for over nine centuries. Nine centuries for the pack to grow fat and strong from their endless supply of prey. Nine centuries of perfecting their opportunistic mass snaring tactics. While the herds dreaded the storm season, the Absols celebrated it. This was their most important season. The Absol Alpha had mustered every Router within his pack, and sent them out as "Dignitaries" to the lesser packs. The Pyroars. The Mightyenas. The Houndooms. The Zoroarks. Every ally was being called upon to secure the White Fault, and to hinder the herd's advance. Every Router in the Absols' pack had been ordered to lead and direct their allies in the preparations. And if the Alphas of the lesser packs did not acknowledge the leadership of the Absols? Well, that was the reason why the Alpha Absol had sent his Routers as the "Dignitaries."

The Routers played an essential role in the hunt. To the Routers fell the most dangerous mission of the hunt. Routers were sent directly into the thick of the herd with the purpose of breaking the herd up into smaller, more manageable portions. While scattering herds, Routers also highlighted priority targets for the rest of the pack to attack. The sick. The injured. The old. The young. The weak.

Routers needed to be just as fast with their brains as they were with their feet. In the heat of the chase, it wasn't uncommon for a lone predator to be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of potential quarry. The worst thing a predator could do in such a crisis, was lose sight of their intended prey, and switch pursuit to another. Then another. Then another. Then another. Such a futile effort only served to wear out the predator while fresh prey slipped away again, and again, and again.

Karst wasn't the Absols' best Router as far Herd-Breaking went, but she had a claim that only the Alpha's offspring would dare make. Karst was the best _Direct_ Router in the Absols' pack, save for her father.

While Direct Routers performed much the same as their less-specialized counterparts, Direct Routers also had another detail added to their expectations list. Direct Routers were the kill makers. When tackling large, dangerous prey; the other Routers fell back, and gave the field to the Direct Router. The Direct Router would torment and weaken the prey in one on one combat. The Direct Router served as a harmful decoy, shouldering all of the risk. All in the effort of providing an opening for the rest of the pack to attack. It was a dangerous job. Countless would-be Direct Routers had been killed on their first hunt by rampaging prey. Only the strongest, most clever, and most tenacious of pack members could make a career out of Direct Routing. Karst was one such example. Minus the Alpha, Karst was the Absols' best example.

However, this innate prowess in the field of battle had opened up yet another task for Direct Routers. A task introduced only a few centuries ago, when a previous Alpha had decided to grant amnesty to the lesser packs. The task of ensuring obedience from the adopted lesser packs.

Karst had been sent to deal with Zoroarks, whose cooperation during the storm seasons had been rather reluctant in the past. The Zoroarks were the best ambush predators of all the packs, but they were the frailest of predators in terms of engage and kill tactics. The Absols' needed the Zoroarks to abandon their typical hunting strategies, and risk probable death in the act of waylaying the herds. With their ability to mimic the physical appearance of their prey, the Zoroarks could actually walk amongst the herds incognito. This unique ability made the Zoroarks the ideal saboteurs in the storm season preparations, but the Zoroarks had a natural aversion towards the open terrain, as well as a dread of combating while exposed. This phobia had limited their contributions to the Absols' cause in the past, and the Alpha had dispatched his own daughter and Lead Router to the Zoroark's allotted lands. All for the purpose of giving the Zoroarks something greater to fear than their inherent phobia. To sum the difficulties of her task up, Karst had eaten four Zoroark Alphas before the fifth one had finally surrendered to her authority. It had taken almost two weeks to ensure the Zoroarks' loyalty, and to oversee their strategic deployment into the herds.

Two weeks away from the Trough. Two weeks' disappearance without prior explanation. Two weeks of fearing for Solomon.

Exhausted though Karst was, she could not allow herself to rest. Not yet. Karst needed to make sure that the Trough was still secure, and that her friend was still alive.

 _Sol… Please don't let anything have found the Trough… Please…_

 _..._

Solomon was anxious. Ever since the first storm clouds had risen, Karst had simply disappeared. In the months of their fostering friendship, Solomon had come to understand just how precarious Karst's situation was. Between her duties as Lead Router and the amount of animosity Karst's pack held against her, Karst's life was an even more miserable existence than Solomon's in the Trough. Constantly risking her own well being for a pack that would rather see her dead than fed, Karst had never really known happiness. Despite her high rank, Karst lived on the outskirts of her pack, just like the Omegas. Karst's own father held some form of disgust for her, and her pack was all too happy to write Karst up as an outcast, all with her father's obvious approval. Though Karst fed second, and was feared as one of the pack's fiercest hunters, these were the only recognitions of her station that Karst received.

Solomon knew why Karst called a feeble fish her best friend. Karst had no other friends, and in exile, Karst would take any form of kinship offered. Solomon's honesty and implicit trust had awoken a sense of want in Karst. And the brain suspected that Solomon's own obvious meekness and dependency on her had triggered some maternal instincts in Karst as well. Now that Karst had discovered the companionship that she had been lacking for so long, Karst's want had become a need. Karst needed Solomon's friendship, just as much as she needed food. Perhaps even more so. Karst had identified a potential food source as her friend. That alone spoke marvels to Solomon, inspiring the heart and intriguing the brain.

 _Something is coming._

Solomon dipped below the surface of the Trough gently, so as to avoid making any telltale ripples. The brain could interpret vague vibrations in the land and water as animal movements. This had saved Solomon countless times, for even though the Trough was a vile source of water, it was still a source of life. And life in this world was precarious to say the least. Only last night, something massive had been fishing in the Trough. It had been poking around in the mud, seeking the prey that hid there. One of the Barboaches that shared the Trough with Solomon had panicked, and upon fleeing its cover in the mud, the Barboach had made itself easy prey in the open confines of the Trough.

Solomon had watched from the cover of the weeds as one of his roommates died in the jaws of something fearsome. When Solomon had witnessed the Barboach's disembowelment, in the very same water that Solomon breathed, it filled him with ill. Though they had never once spoken in their months together, Solomon had still mourned for the Barboach. And he had mourned alone. The remaining two Barboaches seemed completely unconcerned about the fate of their comrade. But a presence had left the Trough. A presence that Solomon once took for granted. A presence that was only ever truly appreciated after it had already been lost. And now, Solomon's frightening and lonely world was noticeably more empty. And all of this fed his fear of having lost Karst.

"She always tells me when she can't make it-" Solomon murmured.

 _Be quite!_

"-She never said that she was going hunting…"

 _It's almost here you idiot! Shut your Goddamn mouth!_

"And it's been two weeks-"

 _You're going to get us killed! Just shut up!_

"What if she's dead?" Solomon whimpered. The brain seized up with fear.

 _Don't move. Don't even flap your gills. It's right above us._

…

Karst came upon the Trough, and began a hasty sweep. She locked up immediately. There was a sour scent in the air, and massive three toed tracks in the mud.

 _Krookodile!_ Karst identified the solitary predator by its smell alone. A Krookodile had been to the Trough. Recently.

"SOL!" Karst screamed. Rushing headlong into the Trough, Karst forgot about their signal. Karst forgot about caution. Karst forgot about secrecy. She had to find him.

"Sol! Where are you?!" Karst screamed, tearing apart the slimy surface with her claws.

"Don't be dead, Sol! Don't be dead!" Karst begged, diving into the Trough. Karst went wild beneath the water, ripping apart weeds and plowing through the mud in her desperate search for Solomon. A pair of Barboaches fled her when she tore into their hiding spot under the silt, but Karst paid them no heed. He had to be in here. Solomon had to be alive.

"WHe-Re-ARE-U-SOL?!" Karst screamed into the water, but it was all for naught. She couldn't find him. A desperate need for breath brought Karst's panicking form back above the surface. Gasping and flailing in the water, Karst felt something warm in her eyes and running down her cheeks. He wasn't here. Solomon was gone.

"DAMN YOU, SOL! DAMN YOU!" Karst screamed with rage, before the grief overwhelmed her. Her goofy fish. Her best friend. Her only friend.

"Solomon…" Karst choked on his name and began to retch. She should have known better. She should have known better than to make a friend out of prey. She should have known better than to connect with the weak-

"Sol…" Karst felt the vomit in her throat. Why did he have to die? Was this punishment? Was this something's cruel idea of justice? Was this retribution for what Karst had done to her little-

"Karst?"

Karst froze. She didn't dare believe it.

"Are you okay? Why are you crying?" Solomon tentatively swam around her shoulders, and softly bumped her wet cheek with his snout. He was still alive.

"Are you hurt?"

He was so innocent. He was so naive. He was so... stupid.

"YOU LITTLE ASSHOLE!" Karst grabbed Solomon in her teeth with a vicious growl. Tearing the startled fish out of the water and tossing him over her shoulder, Solomon landed hard on the bank. Karst started stalking over to where his stunned figure lay. Out of the water. In the shallow mud. Helpless.

"You…" Karst could hardly spit the word out for all of her anger.

"You- You had me- You…" Karst left the depths of the Trough, and prowled across the shallows.

"I- I was- I th-th-thought- that- that…" Karst leaned her furious face over the gaping fish.

"Karst?" Solomon asked in feeble disbelief.

"I- I thought- that you were- you were dead." Karst spoke using every muscle in her gut, forcing the words through the conflicting feelings of relief and betrayal.

"It's- It's good to- to see you, too... Karst." Solomon sniffled, as his mouth formed a happy smile. Karst choked on something. Something out of place. Something that wasn't appropriate for this occasion. A giggle.

"Damn you, Sol…" Karst wept, as more weak laughter fought its way out of her mouth.

"I missed you." Solomon's eyes wetted and reddened at his own heartfelt words. Karst couldn't stifle her laughter anymore than she could repress her tears.

"Damnit, Sol… I missed you too…"

…

"So the Zoroarks have abided by the Absols' demands?" Solomon asked, after both he and Karst had finally managed to calm themselves down. Karst had quickly explained to Solomon the reason for her unannounced disappearance, and had enlightened him to the rapidly changing situation in the Grave Stretch.

"It took some… finesse, but yes. The Zoroarks are instrumental in the pre-season preparations. I would have prefered dealing with any of the other packs, but the Zoroarks are the most difficult pack to subjugate. The Absols almost wiped them out two hundred years ago, when one of our most blood thirsty Routers couldn't adjust his tactics. That's why my father sent me. As well as being his strongest Router, I'm also more amiable than any other Router in our pack." Karst answered.

 _Incredible. So the various packs work together to utilize a natural phenomenon that can alter the migratory patterns of multiple species? That is one hell of a feat!_

"So… The White Fault is… A wall?" Solomon murmured. Karst smiled at him.

 _Duh._

"Not until it floods. Then the entire Core Delta empties its excess drainage into the White Fault. During the storm season, the shift in the water tables is so extreme that it even reverses the flow of the Core Delta. Saltwater starts pouring into the upper tributaries from the sea." Karst elaborated.

 _No fucking way. Ask her how. Now._

"How?" Solomon asked, bewildered more by the brain's reaction than Karst's explanation. Karst laughed.

"Okay… Normally the White Fault is just a massive fissure that rends the breadth of the continent. Sheer drops on all sides, plunging down into an unfathomable depth. There are only a few predominant lapses hidden in the deepest reaches of White Fault's rift. Think of them as land bridges spanning a terrain that we've never even tried to explore. The land bridges are only accessible from the bottom. There is only a handful of safe routes to the bottom, and then there is a long, dangerous trek back up to the other side."

 _Ask her what is at the bottom._

"What is at the bottom of the White Fault?" Solomon relayed the brain's request.

"Caves and stagnant lakes, even nastier than the Trough. The only things living down there are the bugs and some scavengers. The reek from the caves is so foul, that we've never wanted to send an expedition into the caves to ascertain their depths. But they're huge. Massive. And we suspect very, very deep." Karst answered.

 _Curious… So what happens when it floods?_

"So what happens when the White Fault floods?" Solomon asked. Karst shuddered as she summoned up the patience to explain this to the simple Sol.

"There's a tributary that empties into the White Fault. A small tributary. Normally. But when the storms flood the Core Delta, the water drowns the land. The soil in the Core Delta is already at maximum saturation, so the water can stand, like it does here in the Trough; or empty into the sea by way of the Song River and its tributaries. Or, the water can pick the path of least resistance, and drain into the White Fault, which wipes out every safe passage across the entire crevasse. The torrent at the bottom becomes so strong and deep, that anything caught within it ends up dragged down into the caves. Presumably to drown, or get crushed to death by the rocks." Karst explained, her head shaking. Why Sol was asking these questions was beyond her. Sol never really seemed to absorb anything she explained to him.

 _But that doesn't answer how the flow of the river is reversed. Once the aquifers between the sea and the land reach equilibrium, normal flow would resume. The rivers would empty into the sea, and the flood's spillover would empty into the White Fault. The drain from the White Fault could never pull enough water to ignore that constant… What are you waiting for, heart? Ask her!_

"-But- The…" Solomon stammered. He had barely understood anything the brain had just said.

 _*Sigh* Once the aquatic equilibrium…_

"But once the aquatic equilibrium is restored, wouldn't the floodwater flow back into the sea? I mean, the White Fault is just an alternative route for the upper region's floodwater, right?" Solomon asked. Karst's jaw dropped. Sol had asked some surprisingly complex questions in the past, but Solomon had never logically elaborated upon a question, especially not in the manner that he had just displayed.

"Yeah- You're right…" Karst uttered when she could breathe again.

"But you don't understand how much water ends up in the Core Delta during the storm season. It's not the drain from the White Fault that alters the river's direction… It's the tidal patterns." Karst explained.

 _Ahhh… I see now!_

"I see now! So the sheer volumetric mass of water in the aquifers and the overlaying river system effectively reaches equilibrium with the ocean, and is thereby affected by the ocean's tidal patterns, ergo; the Core Delta acts as a seasonal tidal plain, temporarily extending the reach of the ocean's high tides and low tides well into the interior of the continent! Unbelievable!" Solomon exclaimed. Karst just about passed out. She didn't even understand some of those terms, but she was intimidated by their apparent authority. What's more, these authoritative sounding terms had come from the mouth of Solomon, who could barely understand the significance of the Alpha-Beta ranks.

"What did you just say?" Karst gasped with a feeble breath.

"What did I just say?" Solomon asked, alarmed.

 _Something intelligent. If you're experiencing a sense of confusion, you might have an allergy to intelligence._

Karst made a coughing sound. Her wide eyes regarded Solomon with wonder. The coughing noise became a rasp, before winding up into a nervous cadence of her annoying laughter.

 _Shit, I think I broke her too._

"What the fuck, Sol? What- What just happened?" Karst asked through the mirth.

 _Just tell her that you had a brain fart._

"I had a brain fart." Solomon answered guiltily.

 _*Snicker*_

"Okay… right. I guess… I guess that works... But o-o-only- o-only for you, S-Sol…" Karst staggered over the words as a new bout of cackles overwhelmed her.

 _Thank you. Thank you all so very much. It's been my pleasure to-_

"What's a brain fart?" Solomon asked, suddenly worried. Karst's next fit of laughter just about killed her.

 _I hate me..._

…

Karst left the Trough, and made for the Black Moot, a meeting grounds for all the packs that operated under the Absols' authority. Her father would be expecting her to attend the council. Every Absol was expected to appear, just to demonstrate the size and strength of the Absols' pack. Just to remind the lesser packs who was superior.

Karst was still fatigued from her mission to the Zoroarks, and her reunion with Solomon had left her wet, dirty, and injured. Solomon had made Karst laugh so hard, that Karst thought she might have pulled a muscle in her gut. Even with a stab of abdominal pain in every stride, Karst couldn't stop smiling. Solomon was still alive and well, and his curious behaviour had infected Karst with an uncharacteristic joy. A joy Karst couldn't suppress.

"So when an idiot has a brain fart, they say something intelligent?" Karst wheezed the punchline as she tore through the tall grass.

"Only you, Sol. Only you…" Karst's smile widened, before a passing thought strained it.

"Does that mean he's remembering?" Karst asked herself. Karst had asked Sol about his memory almost daily for the first month. She had even designed certain mind games to try and challenge Sol into remembering his past. But the dopey Magikarp just couldn't recall a thing. Only his name. But Solomon's exposition on the White Fault...

"That was odd. Sol doesn't have enough brainpower to figure something that complex out. Especially not in a minute. It took us centuries to figure it all out... How the hell did a braindead Magikarp add it all up that quickly?" Now Karst's euphoria was being tempered by uncertainty. Her smile was waning.

"What is he?" Karst murmured as she left the tall grass, and found one of her pack's hunting trails. Nothing Karst had seen prior could even come close to preparing her for Solomon's scientific outburst. It was a highly unnerving behavior when considered without the humor.

"Though I suppose-" Karst's face split wide with a new smile.

"It could have just been a lethal brain fart!" Karst laughed as she put down a burst of speed on the hard packed soil. The stormy sky was darkening. Soon, night would descend upon the Core Delta, and the Black Moot would play host to a council of the Grave Stretch's various packs. A gathering of hunters. A congress of predators.

"I hate this season." Karst grumbled, reflecting on how she was soon to be paraded in the Black Moot, as an intimidating spectacle displayed before the the lesser packs. Not to mention just how much work was going to fall onto the Lead Router's shoulders during the start of the season. Karst wasn't liable to get any rest until the White Fault flooded. No time for rest meant no time for Solomon. The dread of the floodwaters filling the Trough still played havoc with Karst's conscious. When the Trough became a sustainable source of clean water, the trapped herds would swarm to it in the thousands. And following the herds, were the predators. And some of the predators preferred the easily caught flesh of fish over the struggle of killing for red meat.

"We're going to have to think of something… The Trough isn't going to be safe for much longer… But nowhere is going to be safe for much longer… Come on. Think, Karst. Think." The sound of many paws falling in rapid succession interrupted Karst's dialogue. A pack was coming up behind her.

"Lead Router!" A harsh voice barked. Karst slowed her pace, allowing a hunting group of Absols to catch up with her.

"How goes the hunt?" Karst asked the Pride Leader as he and his pride fell into stride with her. The Pride Leader narrowed his eyes.

"We brought down a Donphan trying to sneak across the Grave Stretch ahead of schedule. Both her and her Phanpys will make for an impressive feast." The Pride Leader answered.

"And the Black Moot?" Karst asked. The Pride Leader gritted his teeth.

"The Mightyenas are late, as usual. The Pyroars and the Houndooms engaged one another in a raid, and our own Alpha had to intervene. The Pyroars find themselves with a new Alpha now. Perhaps this one will respect the Law of the Moot more readily than his predecessor did." The Pride Leader explained to Karst. The situation transpiring within the Black Moot did not surprise her.

"Sounds like the typical start of another successful season. Make haste, Pride Leader. We must arrive at the Black Moot before the Mightyenas do." Karst took to the head of the pride, and floored it. The hunting group behind her followed suit.


	5. Chapter V: Ensnaring Confluences

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 **.**

 **V**

 **...**

 **-A-**

 **..v..**

 **Chapter V: Ensnaring Confluences**

The Black Moot. The de facto Roundtable of the Grave Stretch. The unnatural congress of predators. The audience hall of primordial kings. The throne room of the cruelest and fittest. The last place that Karst wanted to be.

A cacophony of howls and roars pealed out the instant Karst and her escort arrived. Both Karst and the Pride Leader were cursing. The Mightyenas had beaten them. The Pride Leader and his group quickly abandoned their Lead Router; it was best to let the VIP soak the heat alone for this one. Karst suppressed a groan and held herself in as regal a stance as she was able, awaiting her Alpha's summons from the fold. But instead of a herald, the Alpha deemed himself fit to bear his own message.

Karst swallowed when she saw her Alpha's Pride part the gathering like a claw through skin. The Alpha himself was at the Pride's head, followed by his Beta, and accompanied by his elite Routers. Strangely, this Pride counted two foreigners among its midst. A delegate from the Zoroarks' pack was present, as well as a figure almost as unnerving to Karst as the Absols' own Alpha. The Alpha of the Houndooms strode comfortably at her father's side, as if he among all others was as close to an equal as the Absol Alpha knew. Technically, he was.

"My dear daughter…" The silky voice of the Absol Alpha greeted Karst, no sooner had he and his Pride reached her person. Karst tried not to shudder. It wasn't without a reason that the Alpha had chosen to acknowledge his relation to her.

"My Alpha." Karst lowered her head and shoulders, and averted her eyes. Such etiquette was expected when in the presence of your betters. The Alpha Absol moved in, and no more an impressive specimen could exist to represent their kind. At roughly seventeen stone and standing six feet in height at the shoulder, the Alpha was a colossus of his species. Yet despite towering over his assorted Routers by a foot and a half at the least, the Alpha's body had lost none of its litheness to his unseemly size. Taut cords of muscle pulled scarred tissue tightly across his limber frame. Massive patches of fur had been lost to the countless battles fought to maintain his reign, and the scourged dermis exposed would never again sprout hairs. His horn, though chipped and jagged, still held its cruel edge. More so, perhaps, for this giant of a blade now possessed a gutting serration. Paws the size of Karst's own face crossed into her downcast vision. The Alpha began to sniff about her offered neck, and with a disgusted growl did he fall back.

"You reek of the swamps. Have you no dignity to display for our guests? Do you mean to disgrace your Alpha?" The Alpha practically smolder with ire. Karst quickly lowered herself further.

"Apologies, Alpha. For I fear that I placed my arrival above mine own appearance-" Karst never had the chance to finish. Her father's horn thrust between her forelegs, and with a graceful twist of his mighty neck, the Alpha lifted Karst into the air; before slamming her into the ground upon her back. The Alpha's horn had reach enough to meet Karst's abdomen without any need for him to stoop.

"And you arrived late." The Alpha spat. His Beta chuckled behind him. Karst did not meet her father's eyes, though when the tip of his horn found her chin, Karst was forced to match his gaze. The Alpha was furious. Karst wondered if the Alpha would simply stomp on her gut, or if he felt that slicing open a wound more befit her punishment. Surprisingly, he did neither.

"Get up." The Alpha hissed, and Karst quickly made to comply.

"Not quite the same impression that she left us with." The Zoroark said snidely. Karst didn't need any more reason than his unwanted lip to justify putting the Zoroark in the same humiliating position that she had priorly played part in.

"Forgive me for not being at my best. But I find the flesh of Barboach to be a welcome salve for the Zoroark grease that still lingers in my palate." Karst even managed to sound apologetic when she addressed the Zoroark pinned beneath her horn. The Zoroark looked balefully up at the Absol Alpha, who was all too happy to gloat at the Zoroark's weakness.

"Now, now, daughter. There's no need to eat another greasy Zoroark. But his tongue does warrant some manner of retribution." The Alpha Absol chided, as he strode around the helpless Zoroark.

"Cut him, but none too deep. He is after all, our guest." The Alpha Absol spoke with an icy command, and Karst chose the Zoroark's face to serve as the medium of her mark.

"Consider yourself fortunate that I did not claim an eye, Zoroark." Karst hissed as she finished the deed. The bleeding Zoroark pulled himself unsteadily to his feet.

"Now Zoroark. Thank my daughter for her mercy." The Alpha Absol laughed. The Zoroark reluctantly lowered himself onto all fours, and averted his eyes from Karst. The Alpha Absol placed a massive paw upon the shoulders of the Zoroark.

"Very good. All is forgiven." The Alpha Absol simpered, pressing the Zoroark down into the dirt.

"Now I see the family resemblance." The sly voice of the Alpha Houndoom spoke thus. Both Karst and her father turned to him now. Though of average size for a Houndoom, the Alpha of their pack was every bit as vicious and as cunning as the scions of his species could achieve. Yet despite being ever the eloquent rogue, his station could not be maintained by cruel wit and misleading candor alone. Regardless of the Houndoom Alpha's youth and stature, he was the best combatant in the Houndooms' entire pack. Which alone spoke volumes of his prowess, for his own Routers were as large and as strong as those present in the Absol Alpha's Pride.

"It should be even more apparent when she finds the pride to groom herself." The Alpha Absol growled, bringing his horn down across Karst's side. Karst did not cry out, though her father's rend had left her bleeding.

"Please, Pack Master. The Zoroark was spectacle enough. I wouldn't want your little heiress to bear the scars of her father's displeasure." The charm within the Alpha Houndoom's tone belied some private message for his Absol counterpart. Karst's father sneered.

"If such a shallow wound scars, then this ragged excused for an Absol would shame her father greatly." Try as she might to restrain her fear, Karst could not stop the flexing of her throat muscles with a swallow. Both the Houndoom Alpha and her father noticed. A look of fury overcame the Absol Alpha, enraged with such a display of weakness.

"It appears that you have raised an obedient daughter, Pack Master. I must commend your leadership, for the countless progenies of the Alphas have secured a reputation for rebellion. Your daughter is the loyal exception." The Houndoom Alpha spoke, and his honeyed tone stayed the Absol Alpha's wrath. Glaring at his daughter, the Alpha Absol hesitated.

"Perhaps." The Alpha Absol growled through gritted teeth, before turning towards his Beta.

"Take my Routers and escort our guests to their respective Prides. The delegations will begin at midnight. If another raid is held, spare the Alpha, but cull his Pride. Then serve his own as the appetizers. Make sure the offending Alpha receives a generous portion." The Alpha Absol ordered. The Beta lowered her head in reverence.

"Yes, my Alpha." The Beta murmured as she and the Absol Pride turned about, making for the great stoned moor of the moot. Hearing her cue, Karst made to follow the Pride.

"I said my Routers." The Alpha Absol halted the Pride with his stony utterance. Karst looked nervously back at her father.

"I never gave my daughter leave." The Alpha Absol growled dangerously. Karst could feel her knees weakening. The Beta smirked, and headed off with the Pride. Karst caught the eye of the Houndoom Alpha. His rabid glare was regarding her- lecherously?

"Walk with me." The Alpha Absol hissed, and Karst broke her startled gaze with the Houndoom, and fell into stride at her father's side. Neither Karst nor her father spoke a word, as the pair headed away from the Moot. Only after they had crossed into the raw lands, did her father speak.

"Muddy Barboach as a palate cleanser. Do you really think me a fool?" The Alpha growled. Karst froze.

 _Sol!_

"What were you doing in the swamps? Where have you been disappearing off to?" The Alpha paused beneath the shadow of an elder tree. The Tangela in its branches fled to higher ground at their approach. Karst wouldn't show her fear. She wouldn't try to lie either. Her father suspected something, and attempting to deny such allegations would only earn her another gash.

"I was speaking to a friend." Karst answered coldly. The Alpha began to laugh.

"A friend? Since when do pariahs associate with friends?" The Alpha asked. Karst fought back the hot shame that threatened to wet her eyes. But her father could see it in her composure.

"Say it." The iron voice of the Alpha growled. Karst swallowed, and that look of rage filled her father's visage. However, he managed to master it. With a smirk, the Alpha settled down, smiling to himself contently.

"Have you perhaps, finally deemed it proper to present your father with a cub?" The Alpha asked, amused. Karst straightened up at once. He had just presented an advantage.

"The attempts are being made, but… the candidate in question, though perfectly able, is unsure if he desires to consummate the next Alpha." Karst replied. Her father once more grew furious.

"What maligned creature would deny the opportunity to sire an Alpha?! Direct me to him, so that I may ensure no bitch's womb ever bears his offspring!" Karst's gamble had worked. True to his disposition, the Alpha's hope for a male heir could blind him with its passion.

"Perhaps you know him. Perhaps he stands guard over you while you sleep-" A cruel horn appeared at Karst's jawline, and one look into her father's eyes told Karst that her bluff had cost her.

"You lie, daughter. None of my Pride has left mine sight while you mysteriously pay call to the swamps. That, and they know my plans for you. Not one would dare interfere." The Alpha spat, lowering his horn. Karst baulked, and once more, desperation made her into a begging child.

"Can you not sire your own heir? Why must I give you my cub?" Karst could not hold back the tears, even though she knew that the Alpha would punish her for them.

"You stole my heir, daughter…" The Alpha twisted and hissed her relation, pausing for want of breath with which to relax.

"-And you will repay me with such an heir." The Alpha began to calm, though his eyes only held rank accusation and unbridled loathing.

"Please, father-" Karst's plea was silenced as the Alpha's horn fell across her back. Belly on the ground, blood running from this new wound, Karst awaited her father's wrath. But instead of horn, he chose to lash her with his words.

"You have always aimed to disgrace me! By your very nature do you spite me! Dry your eyes before I wound you with such that merits tears. Rise, daughter, and fail in failing me." The Alpha roared. Karst found her feet, and met her father's challenge with a dead face.

"Two years. Two years you have been of breeding age, and by your chaste scent, I know that you've yet to have been broken. Why do you delay in the act? Surely some member of my Pride has warmed your loins. Why have you not given me my cub?" The Alpha fixed Karst with a harsh eye, while his cold voice drove horns into her stomach.

"I- I thought- I thought that you intended to sire the next Alpha, father…" Karst whimpered. The Alpha scowled.

"You know better than that. No womb will ever foster my seed whole. You and your brother were all that I will ever sire. And I am now left with only you… A female…" The Alpha hissed. The Alpha watched his daughter, attempting to ascertain the reason for her hesitation. But for all her guilt and shame, he could not discern one.

"Does the fear of childbirth and labor feed reason to cross your legs? Speak." The Alpha spat. Karst's eyes began to water again.

"You'll kill me… Once I give you my cub- You'll kill me…" Karst whimpered piteously. The Alpha roared.

"And why would I slay my own daughter? Does she perhaps think that I follow in her example as a killer of kin?" The Alpha growled, fixing his daughter with a disgusted eye.

"But it would be my cub- My child-" Karst wept. Her father charged her bodily into the tree.

"No. It would be mine. And you… You would live as you always have. On the outskirts. Keeping you and your weak ways away from me and my heir." The Alpha whispered as he crushed his daughter up against the knobby wood. Karst was crying freely now. She didn't believe him. After she presented her father with an heir, she would only be a liability. Alpha's will or not, Karst would raise her own child. And her father would spare his heir of her meddling regardless of the cost. The Alpha released her, and let Karst fall prone against the roots.

"I am weary of waiting. Too much longer now, and I will be old and crippled. Unfit to instruct the next Alpha, as I have instructed you. You will give me a cub… And sooner than you'd like." The Alpha growled. Karst looked up at him in terror. He didn't mean-

"This Moot has been a rather interesting one, has it not? The Zoroarks are in full attendance, the third Alpha this season was selected by the Pyroars, the Mightyenas brought an offering of Arcanine meat… And the Houndoom Alpha approached me with the most outrageous request." The Alpha turned back to his daughter, the sly look alive and wicked in his eye.

"Such a curious one, that Houndoom. I was preparing a culling of their numbers, just to play it safe… But now… I think that I favor their expansion." The Alpha smiled down at his terrified daughter.

"Can you guess why, daughter?" The Alpha asked, a voice of silk and cream. Karst hadn't a clue, but some nagging voice in her head screamed that it had something to do with her. Her father's smile only reinforced it.

"Following the flood of the White Fault, I'm sending you into the Houndooms' pack." The Alpha announced in a breathy monotone. Karst swallowed.

"Am I to serve as your eyes and ears within their pack?" Karst asked, trying to raise her battered body from the dirt. A lift at the corner of her father's mouth did nothing to ease her dread.

"As my informant? Most certainly. But that objective is secondary. Your primary mission is to serve the Houndoom Alpha…" The Alpha paused to savor his daughter's confused expression.

"...As his Beta." The Alpha dropped that load with such a casual countenance, that Karst struggled to believe her own ears.

"W-what?" Karst asked, her mind growing numb. The Alpha chuckled.

"By his own Pack's words, he is quite queer in his tastes. Extremely queer, but… Ambitious." The Alpha's voice was inflected with some small admiration.

"When he boldly requested my daughter as his mate, in full view of the Moot, I was ready to gut him on the spot. But curiosity stayed my ire. He hadn't come to me with such an outrageous request only to incite my wrath. Their must have been a reason to his madness. And what a reason it was…" The Alpha stared off into the darkening woods. Karst felt her skin grow cold as ice.

"Just as I am concerned with mine legacy, so too does the Pack Master of the Houndooms ponder his. His choice in you as his mate is not unfounded. He is strong, strong enough to take my rule from me when age has claimed my might. And you... you are strong, daughter. Even if your heart is weak." The Alpha cooed. Karst was feeling sick with the terror. Her own father had sold her.

"Your cub will take his linage from his mother, but he will inherit his father's influence all the same. A hybrid, pureblood Alpha. My heir. The scion of the Houndooms. The Alpha of Two-Packs." The Alpha was smiling fondly at his daughter, seemingly oblivious to her ill. Or more likely, unconcerned.

"The Alpha of Two-Packs… Trained by the strongest Absol that ever hunted the earth. Taught his father's skill in diplomacy past the point of all peers. Birthed, by the greatest disgrace our pack has ever known." The Alpha's voice rumbled as he spat the finish. Karst quickly stood up. Her father observed her with some small approval.

"This is the greatest contribution that you could ever dream of making. This legacy could free you of your damned existence. You could be remembered as the mother of Two-Packs. Even your prior shame pales in comparison to the splendor of that title." The Alpha held his daughter in a heavy glare, awaiting some form of merit to shine within her person. But Karst was just a hollow shell. Karst was nothing to her father but the vessel of his legacy. Mother of Two-Packs or not, neither the Houndooms' Alpha nor her father would let Karst raise a child. And if Karst's use to the both was spent, and her status as exile undermining her child's fate… By father or by mate, Karst would die.

"This is the Alpha's will?" Karst asked in a feeble voice. Her father drew a great breath, before releasing it in a soft voice.

"It is your father's wish."

Karst stared at the monster before her. Did he really still care for her, or was this some machination designed to gain her trust? She had to know. She had to ask.

"And if my father hears the word, No?" Karst asked in a weary voice. The Alpha smirked.

"Then your Alpha will summon his Pride. And then he will command them to have their way with you. They are all fit sires. I can afford to leave the father of my heir up to chance." The Alpha spoke with that poisonous candor. A voice of silk and warning, all mixed with a casual glee. Karst nodded. She should have known.

"Then at the flooding of the White Fault, I will depart unto the Houndooms. And when I return to you, Alpha, it will be with the heir of Two-Packs." Karst murmured. Her father smiled.

"Good. Now go clean yourself. I expect you to attend the delegations of the Moot. Do not be late. Now leave." The Alpha commanded, and Karst was all too ready to comply.

"Daughter." That title froze Karst's hasty retreat. She did not look back to her father, but awaited whatever words he said in parting.

"Make sure that it is a male heir." The Alpha hissed, and Karst ran into the woods, seeking some privacy to weep and groom. Leaving the Alpha below his tree.

"You are of course, not to speak of this to anyone, not even your own Alpha." The Alpha Absol spoke into the night. A Tangela fell from the upper branches of the tree, and landed beside him.

"Of course, my Alpha. Do you still not trust me?" The marked Zoroark sounded wounded as he cast off his Flora disguise.

"Test my patience, Zoroark, and unlike my daughter... you will be thanking me for taking only an eye." The Alpha hissed. The bleeding face of the Zoroark smirked.

"So our arrangement stands?" The Zoroark asked. The Alpha growled.

"Very well. Fear not, Alpha. I will follow her." The Zoroark's image diffracted and darkened, before an Oddish appeared at the Alpha Absol's side.

"Make haste, Zoroark. Flowers or not, you are still edible." The Alpha growled. The Oddish tore off into the woods at a speed that was quite uncommon for their species.

"Unsettling creature…" The Alpha grumbled as he made his way back towards the Moot.


	6. Chapter VI: Prayers Unheard

.

 **.**

 **V**

 **...**

 **-A-**

 **..v..**

 **Chapter VI: Prayers Unheard**

Solomon was once more worried. The end of another week was approaching, and Karst had not come down to the Trough in that time. Though Karst had explained that her obligations as Lead Router in the pre-storm season would consume the vast majority of her time, their last meeting had been the same day that Karst had left for the Black Moot. Having not heard from her since had only tortured the heart and irritated the brain.

 _This is fucked up. We need to think of something. Soon._

"What can we do? We can't rightly walk out of this puddle and find Karst…" Solomon sniffled.

 _That's not what I'm talking about. Those storm clouds have been pretty lenient thus far, but after what Karst told us… This little puddle will soon be a lake._

"How is that a problem? I thought you wanted clean water." Solomon murmured.

 _Uh. Okay. Yeah. There is a problem. It's not going to be "clean water." It's going to be runoff, containing massive amounts of filth, not to mention tannic acid. Or minerals, like copper, stirred up in all the mud that it's going to be bringing. Now I don't know exactly what the chemical and mineral tolerances of a Magikarp are, but I'll bet that very soon, we're going to find out. That is once we're swimming in a chemical bath infused with heavy metals. I.E. We're fucked. If we're not outright killed by this shit, then it's likely that we'll be hopelessly insane from REAL brain damage brought about by all the poisons that are going to seep into our body. And just in case we somehow manage to justify living in such an undignified state, what do you think the flood water is going to bring?_

"Not optimism and hope for tomorrow?" Solomon pleaded.

 _Thirsty shit, you idiot. And if you haven't already noticed, activity is picking up around here. The Trough got hit four times this morning, and two of those cases were creepy shits whose anatomy had "Angler" written all over them. And more shit like that is going to crop up once the rains fall. Guess what "Anglers" do to fish? Yeah. I'd rather die from poisoning than end up like that poor Barboach. Our future in the Trough looks like this: Heads, they win. Tails, we lose. SIT-REP? FUBAR'd. Operation call sign: "THAT'S IT, MAN! GAME OVER, MAN! GAME OVER! WE'RE ALL FUCKED!"_

"Karst will help us. You know that she will." Solomon drew comfort from those words, and even the brain hesitated to speak his fears aloud.

 _Look, dude… If Karst is still alive, then she's going to be up to her eyeballs in whatever prep work Karst's pack has her doing for this season. I know that Karst said it would be a while before she could visit, and if I didn't hate "God" so much, I'd be praying for her… But… If it is just "us," then we need to be prepared. Unfortunately, I can't think of one thing that's going to save us. Not when our environment is trying to kill us. I need your help, heart. I need your drive._

"But what can I do? If you can't see any direction, how am I supposed to get us there?" Solomon moaned. The brain sighed.

 _It's not looking good, dude. But we can't give up-? -Get down._

Solomon dove as silently as he could.

 _Get to our shelf. Hide beneath the roots. Hurry._

Solomon sped off into the weeds, and quickly swam into an alcove that he had carved from the mud. The Trough was just too small to flee from hunters, so Solomon had dug a series of niches beneath the roots of the weeds, and had even dragged refuse over to conceal the entrances. Even if cornered in one of their hiding spots, their chances of survival were much higher than if they attempted to escape predators in the open water.

 _Number five today… New record…_

Solomon almost inhaled a mouthful of silt.

 _Grazer or Angler. What are you?_

Solomon heard three splashes in quick succession. He made to leave the safety of the den at once.

 _Wait five seconds, you idiot!_

Solomon froze, and slunk back into the den.

 _Three… Two… One…_

A pair of splashes sounded, and both the brain and the heart were overwhelmed with relief. Tearing out of the muddy bottom, Solomon breached the surface near the splashes' origin.

"Karst!" Solomon was barely out of the water before her paws fell around him.

"Karst? What's wrong?" Solomon's voice cracked when he noticed her tears. Karst made a gagging sound. She tried to speak, but a wretched sob was all the voice she had.

"Karst… Please. Talk to me." Solomon swam up against her foreleg. Karst shivered at his touch, as she struggled to draw a steady breath.

"Sol… I'm going to be leaving soon…" Karst whimpered. Solomon froze.

"Is it- The White Fault?" Solomon asked. Karst shook her head, and retched again.

"No… I'm- I'm running away." Karst moaned. Solomon froze.

"Talk, Karst. Just talk." Solomon nuzzled her ankle, and the Absol collapsed around him. Curling in, Karst entrapped Solomon with her legs, and brought him up against her abdomen.

...

" _You will be hunting with the Houndooms today. Their Alpha has requested your inclusion within his own Pride. As a sign of my goodwill, I promised him your early arrival." The Absol Alpha had come to the outskirts of the Pack to inform Karst of this arrangement. Karst didn't show any fear or noncompliance. This was a hunt, nothing more._

" _As my Alpha commands." Karst faced her father, unconcerned. He smiled at her, which should have raised her alarm, but her father was getting what he wanted. What else could that smile have meant, other than satisfaction at her servitude?_

 _..._

" _Bring it down! Absol! With me on the front!" The Alpha Houndoom roared, and Karst appeared at his side. The Kangaskhan were reforming their line, and if the Direct Routers could not break it…_

 _The screams of their first kill brayed out, as the rest of the Alpha's Pride overwhelmed the dying mother. Karst had claimed that one. Now she and the Alpha Houndoom were circling the remaining Kangaskhan. Opposite sides. Splitting the Kangaskhan mob's attention._

" _Routers! Down the center! Shake their formation!" The Alpha shouted, and his Pride obeyed. Five Houndoom Routers charged straight towards the Kangaskhan's line, in a 'V' shaped pattern. The first Router broke off just as the lead Kangaskhan made to attack, and the two Routers behind him harried the staggering beast. The two behind those barreled directly into the pair of Kangaskhans moving to assist their leader._

" _Absol! Now!" The Alpha Houndoom roared, and Karst lowered her horn. Charging into the brawl, Karst focused on the lead Kangaskhan, sweeping her horn up for added momentum. The hide of the Kangaskhans was tough, resilient to the Houndooms' flames, and robust callouses protected the Kangaskhan's vitals, like hardened leather armor. But like all prey, there was a weak spot. The armpit._

 _Soft, tender flesh was punctured by Karst's horn, and her aim was as true as her father's own. Sliding between the ribs, piercing both lung and heart, Karst dealt the Kangaskhan a mortal wound. She was quick to lower her head, less the retaliating blow from the Kangaskhan bind her to death with the prey. With the death of the leader certain, the Kangaskhan's line broke. Freeing her horn, both Karst and the Houndooms left the lead Kangaskhan to bleed out, and focused their attentions on rearing a third head._

" _Routers! Use your flames! Concentrate on the bitch!" The Alpha Houndoom ordered, spitting his own jet of fire at the intended target. The Houndoom Pride attacked as one, the majority of their flames aimed at the Kangaskhan's face._

" _Absol-!"_

" _I know what to do. Don't get me burned." Karst growled, cutting off the Alpha Houndoom's order. A moment of shocked rage crossed his face, but a wicked smile followed it in a seamless exchange of expression._

" _Pride! On my mark!" The Alpha Houndoom roared. Karst was already falling back. She wanted as much speed as possible for this one. Breaking into a charge, Karst once again lowered her horn at a sweeping angle. Putting every nerve and muscle of her legs into overdrive, Karst found a staggering burst of speed. Hopefully, the Alpha Houndoom knew that she could move this fast._

 _The distance was closing, but Karst's mind had slowed the world to a crawl. Less than a second remained before her killing blow was struck, all while the Houndoom's flames blinded the hapless Kangaskhan._

" _HOLD!" The Alpha Houndoom roared, and every jet of flame was quenched, leaving the Kangaskhan flailing. But only for that single second. Karst didn't aim for the armpit. Leaping with the final arc of her stroke, Karst aimed straight for the neck. Her horn punched through the flaking armor and severed through the meat, separating the vertebrae like a blade. Such was the power in her lunge that she actually toppled the plain's titan. Rolling with the falling beast, Karst tore her horn loose from the rent flesh and landed on her feet. The entire Houndoom Pride fixed their gazes upon her with a mix of awe and admiration. No one in their pack had ever fallen a Kangaskhan with but a single blow. As Karst turned to face them, they quickly found their composure. All of the Pride became stoic, save for the Alpha, who still wore his approval with a salivating grin._

" _Spare the rest." The Alpha growled as his Pride moved to engage the fleeing Kangaskhans. They halted at his command._

" _We killed their Matron, and her daughter. Their mob will be lost without their elder's guidance. So much for the Kangaskhans making the White Fault before the rains." The Alpha grinned at Karst._

" _Fine show, Absol. Your father did not grant you the position of Lead Router by your birth alone, it seems. Good show." Karst was immune to his flattery. His words meant nothing to her._

" _Eviscerate the carcases. Tan them if you must. Make sure the pieces are of manageable size for the Scroungers." Karst ordered. The Pride faltered. They only took their orders from the Alpha. The Alpha, however, was fixing Karst with an amused eye._

" _You heard the Beta. Do as she commands." The Alpha grinned, even as Karst stiffened. The Pride began to jeer, laughing at the scandalized Absol._

" _Until the White Fault floods, I am still the Absols' Lead Router. Not the Houndooms' Beta." Karst retorted, sinking her teeth into the dead Kangaskhan's tongue, stealing the first meal from the Alpha Houndoom. The angry Pride fell back as their beguiled leader sauntered forward._

" _Defiant. Even cheeky. I think you will make me a fine Beta… Once you learn obedience." The Alpha Houndoom cackled as he tore a strip of meat from the Kangaskhan's jaw. Karst watched him eat with disgust. Pausing upon his meal, the Alpha raised his head. The Pride was watching expectantly, waiting for him to exercise his authority over this upstart of an Absol. Karst's glare was certainly goading him into it._

" _What are you all gawking at!? The Beta gave you an order!" The Alpha roared, and his Pride immediately began the gruesome detail of breaking down the carcasses._

" _I'm not some Alpha Pyroar, Absol. Your father knows this. You may be his little 'Alpha Slayer,' but only he has the strength to defeat me. Don't make me prove this." The Alpha spoke in an amused drawl, before he returned to his meal._

" _So then why are you trying to buy his good graces? Did you hear rumors of another culling soon to fall upon your pack?" Karst mocked, and the Alpha rose from the gore with a growl._

" _He's trying to buy my good graces… Beta. I offered him a legacy. He gave me the means." The Alpha murmured, before gorging himself on the Kangaskhan's throat._

" _Yes, I heard about your little heir of Two-Packs. Do you honestly believe that the Absols and the Houndooms will ever hunt together as a single pack?" Karst hissed snidely. The Alpha began to laugh. Raising his head from the kill, the Alpha looked up at Karst. As a bloody grin raised his maw, the Houndoom's eyes glowed with a rabid madness._

" _Ask this Kangaskhan if she believes it, Beta."_

 _Karst had finished her meal, though what little her stomach had nerve for. Now she rested in the cover of the sparse trees. The Great Expanse had little to offer in the way of comfort, and due to the pressing time constraints, the Prides were forced to hunt beneath the full fury of the baking sun. Though Karst was accustomed to hunting by day, the Absols were of a nocturnal species, and both the light and dry heat had ruined her disposition. To say nothing of her hunting Pride, or its leader. The rest of the Pride was still toiling to dismember the remaining Kangaskhan, and as Lead Router, Karst found the authority to relieve herself of such duties. Alone in the faint shade, Karst simmered over the events of this day, the Alpha Houndoom's words playing over and over again in her head._

" _Quite the horn you have. Exceptional." Karst jumped as the Alpha Houndoom settled down next to her. She hadn't even heard him sneaking up on her._

" _It made killing the Kangaskhans far more efficient than our usual methods. Normally, the entire Pride must wrestle a Kangaskhan to the ground, before a Direct Router chews through the throat. It can take many hours, and leaves the entire Pride exhausted after but one kill." The Alpha smiled, though he had not met Karst eyes once since the intrusion. Karst grunted silently. She could give him some leeway._

" _Quite the flames you Houndooms project. Well utilized. Your tactic of blinding the Kangaskhans made it that much easier to score the killing blow." Karst grudgingly admitted. The Alpha Houndoom looked at her with the smarmiest expression she had ever seen on an Alpha._

" _Faster than the Absols' normal tactic of gouging the prey and letting blood loss weaken it, before striking to kill?" The Alpha Houndoom teased. Karst didn't answer. Removed as she was from her Pack, she still had pride in their hunt._

" _Hmm?" The Alpha Houndoom droned pleasantly, awaiting her response._

" _Much faster." Karst growled through her teeth. The Alpha silently chuckled beside her._

" _You see the method to my madness? The two Packs as one?" The Alpha asked Karst. Karst did not dignify him with an answer._

" _Our species are not so different. True, we Houndooms breath fire and you Absols strike with the force of an enraged Ursaring, but other than that… we aren't so different." The Alpha mused._

" _Just different enough to count." Karst hissed. The Alpha was laughing again._

" _Why try to deny it? We are completely different! One might go as far as to say we are incompatible! But if we let our differences get in the way of progress, then we'd never know what we could achieve together..." The Alpha sidled closer to Karst, who likewise sidled further away._

" _I don't know anything about 'togetherness,' so ply your words on a simpering bitch." Karst spat. The Alpha regarded her mockingly._

" _I understand that you are treated as an outcast in your pack. Such a shame. If your father only knew what he was throwing away-"_

" _Shut your mouth." Karst hissed, cutting the Alpha off. The Alpha grinned, and Karst grew furious with herself. She had revealed her weak spot._

" _You know, life as the Houndooms' Beta would favor you. Second to eat. Second in command. A Pride to defend you. And all the companionship you could ever dream of…" The Alpha Houndoom nuzzled Karst's neck. She was on her feet in an instant._

" _Do not touch me!" Karst roared. The Alpha was laughing again, as he slowly rose to his feet._

" _You will make me a fine Beta. You will bear me a fine heir. I do hope that he inherits your untamed spirit. It such a joy to see you this angry…" The Houndoom's eyes lit with a wild urge. He approached Karst unafraid. Karst positioned her horn, and growled a warning._

" _I am not your Beta. Not until the White Fault fills." Karst spat. The Alpha paused, if only to laugh at her._

" _Yes, I was thinking about the color of your fur, too. Such a lovely white… hiding such a desirable fault, just aching to be filled…" The Houndoom grinned with all the restraint of a lech._

" _How dare you. When my father hears-" Karst's shaking words were drowned out to the sound of the Alpha's laughter._

" _Your father? Who do you think requested that I break you as soon as possible?" The Alpha Houndoom simpered in a fashion not unlike Karst's father._

" _Stay away from me." Karst lowered her horn and stepped back, though the Alpha opposing her seemed blissfully unconcerned about her hostile intent._

" _Away? Your father asked me to get closer. Much closer." The Alpha leered._

" _I'll kill you. One more step, Houndoom, and I swear-" The Alpha lunged. Karst leveled her horn with his advance, backpedaling as she did so. The Alpha came up short of her horn, just as she thrusted her weapon towards his throat. A failed riposte left the Houndoom cackling, and Karst trembling. She saw his strategy. He was trying to tire her out._

" _Is this the best that the Absols' Lead Router can muster? I had higher hopes for the Houndooms' future Beta." The Alpha mocked. Karst found her calm. All she needed from him was one slip. One tell. One hint of weakness. And then this madness could end._

" _Is this how the Houndooms fight? Feebly insulting their superiors?" Karst tried to ply his trade, but she was dealing with a master of its craft._

" _This? A fight? I thought that it was foreplay." The Alpha almost sounded wounded. Karst lunged with an enraged roar. A grave error. Karst had played right into his jaws._

" _I told you that I am no weak Pyroar." The Alpha growled around her horn. Karst struggled to free her horn from his teeth, but despite her strength, the Houndoom still had his raw wits. With a growl, the Alpha reversed Karst's thrust into a flounder, and used her own momentum to pull her to the ground. Before Karst could even push herself off of the dirt, the Alpha was upon her. Cranking her horn back, the Alpha angled Karst's head and neck at an excruciating angle, the pain subduing all resistance. Positioning himself on top of her, Karst's growls became whimpers._

" _Let me go." Karst begged. The Alpha growled and twisted her neck._

" _Your father would be so proud. Who knew that you would resist me so bitterly?" The Alpha hissed, lowering his haunches over hers._

" _Please-" Karst whimpered. The Houndoom laughed, as Karst's weak and horrified moan signaled his invasion of her._

" _Your father was right. It is striking to hear you beg…"_

 _..._

"Sol… I have to leave… I can't be here anymore…" Karst groaned.

"Karst… What happened? How can I help?" Solomon was weeping with her. Karst tried not to vomit.

"Tonight, Sol… Tonight I'm leaving. If I don't…" Karst broke. Solomon was quivering against her belly.

"Karst… Take me with you." Solomon whispered. Karst tightened up.

"I'm sorry, Sol… I can't… You'd only slow me down." Karst retched as the shame and guilt followed those cold hearted words.

"There has to be something! I don't want to lose you!" Solomon cried out, his own shame mixing with the fear. Karst met his watery eyes with a detached awe.

"I don't want to lose my Karst… My sweet Karst…" Solomon whimpered. The storm clouds above rumbled.

 _The river! She said something about a "Song River!" It connects to all the tributaries! Ask her if she can drop us off in the river or one of its tributaries!_

"What about the river? If you drop me off in the river or one of its tributaries, I can keep up with you! You don't have to carry me! Not all the way…" Solomon fell into himself when he realized just how selfish his request sounded. This was Karst's life, and now he was endangering it. Karst just looked at Solomon with that disconnected resignation.

"I'm sorry…" Solomon murmured.

 _No. We go with her._

"This isn't about us. It's about you, Karst. You do what you have to do. We'll manage-" Solomon began to sob.

 _You aren't listening, heart. Remember what "God" said? The second trial? The third? Maybe this is the choice! Maybe it's not our choice to make! Maybe Karst has to make it! Maybe this is how we save her!_

"Sol… I don't know if I can…" Karst whimpered.

 _Tell her you idiot! Tell her it's her choice!_

"It's your choice, Karst. And I understand your decision, regardless of your choice." Solomon whispered. Karst closed her eyes, yet more tears seeped from the seams.

"You don't get it, Sol… I'm not going to make it. And if I brought you to the river, you… you would die too..."

 _Tell her our truth._

"I don't care, Karst. I don't care. Either we both live, or we both die. Your choice." Solomon said softly. Karst opened her eyes, and looked on Sol with waxing wonder.

"Karst… I've only been holding on because of you. Because of you, I choose to eat. Because of you, I hide when the anglers come. Because of you… and only you… I choose to live. This is your choice. I've made mine." Solomon's voice was as steady as it had ever been. Karst's withheld breath returned in a flurry of gasps. Hyperventilating, submitting to the emotions that threatened to destroy her, Karst struggled for one breath, just one breath of which to answer him. Just one breath.

"You…" Karst wheezed. Solomon's eyes flickered. Fighting herself, Karst mastered her panic. Her goofy fish. Her dearest friend. The most beautiful creature she had ever known.

"I choose you, Sol…" Karst released her pent up breath in a shuddering, frail wind. Solomon pressed himself against her.

"Sol… If I get us killed-"

"Just another step, Karst. It's just another step for us." Solomon gently whispered.

 _And ain't that no softened truth._

Karst giggled. She didn't know why. What madness was this? How could she laugh now? Why? Why couldn't she stop?

"Damn you, Sol… Why do you do this to me?" Karst giggled. Solomon smiled up at her.

"Because I love you, Karst." Solomon's voice trembled only slightly. Karst was completely overwhelmed. Love? Love. Love-? The giggles grew louder, and before Karst could stop them, her nasally laugh had conquered her tears.

"A Magikarp… A Magikarp loves me? Oh, Sol… My sweetest Sol… If fate had been kinder to me, I would have known you as a Magikarp… Me, a Magikarp? Sol… I wish that I was born a Magikarp…" Karst laughed at her own prayer. It was ridiculous. It was a child's fantasy. It was the perfect escape. To disappear forever, known only by her goofy Sol.

"Tomorrow. Tomorrow morning we leave together." Karst lifted herself from the Trough, still laughing, still crying.

"Tomorrow, Sol… We start our new life together." Karst smiled down at the fish in the water.

"Karst. I meant it. Every word." Solomon whispered.

"I know, little heart. I know you. And I… I love you too, Solomon." Karst answered her Magikarp with the softest of smiles.

"I must return to the pack. For all I know, my father has received word… I must return to alleviate his suspicions. But tomorrow…"

"I'll be waiting for you, Karst." Solomon murmured. Karst lingered over this goodbye. Some small fear told her it would be the last. But she could not stall any longer.

"Goodbye, Sol." Karst whispered as she left the Trough,

"No." Karst paused at Solomon's single syllabled utterance.

"Until we meet again." Solomon replied. Karst found herself laughing.

"In that case, tomorrow cannot come soon enough. Until we meet again, Sol." Karst chuckled, before she hurriedly made her escape. So quickly did Karst flee the Trough, that she failed to notice an Oddish watching her. And when this Oddish gave chase, it moved at an uncanny speed even greater than Karst's own.

…

The Alpha Absol rested his weary bulk in the shadows below his crag. Stretching his spent frame, the Alpha withheld a groan as his joints creaked and ached. He was getting old, and the wizened Alpha knew that his reign would eventually expire. None of the Pack could match his might, but when age had claimed the last of his strength, the weak would be be presented an opportunity. The opportunity to lead the strongest Pack.

The Alpha Absol could not let this happen. The strongest Pack needed the strongest Alpha. The Alpha needed to be usurped in his prime. And the Alpha Absol would see that challenge met, no matter the cost. The Alpha Absol grimaced as he arched his back and rose, feeling both muscles strain and bones pop as he stood upon his feet. His Beta lifted her head from her nap.

"Does my Alpha desire mine company?" The Beta rose to his side, and nuzzled the Alpha's shoulder. Gritting his teeth, the Alpha headbutted his mate.

"Have you no control? Give my seed a chance to take, before we drown your womb again." The Alpha growled. The Beta lowered herself in accordance with her station.

"My apologies, Alpha. I fear that my desire for your touch has weakened my resolve." The Beta spoke with a deepened tone, attempting to seduce her Alpha with her flattery.

"Then find your resolve, and do not forget it." The Alpha spat. He stared off across the moor, eyes ignoring the hundreds of Absol resting in the grass. The Alpha felt a twinge of ill. He was beginning to regret sending his Daughter with the Alpha Houndoom's Pride. Perhaps he should have waited, for though his Daughter's body was strong, her heart was weak.

"I wonder what will become of her when she realizes how low her father will go to see his heir born…" The Alpha Absol murmured. The Beta returned to her nap, growing bitter. She could not birth the Alpha's cub, and her station as Beta was maintained by tradition alone. The Alpha's Daughter now had more rights to the title of Beta than she did.

"My Alpha." One of the elite Router's of his Pride addressed the Alpha Absol with a bow.

"Speak." The Alpha commanded. The Router rose.

"The Houndooms have returned from their foray in the Great Expanse. The Kangaskhans have been subdued. We can count upon their meat to feed our expansion this season." The Router informed his Alpha. The Alpha fixed him with a heavy eye.

"And what of my Daughter? Was she returned to our Pack?" The Alpha asked. The Router faltered. The Alpha tensed with fury.

"She… fled the hunt early, my Alpha. The Scroungers had not yet retrieved the carcasses before-" The Router was interrupted by a snarl and a horn at his throat.

"Spare me the fate of the Scroungers! Where is my Daughter?!" The Alpha roared. The Router lowered himself in submission before speaking.

"The Alpha Houndoom has his Trackers searching for her. I took the incentive and deployed our own Trackers into the fold. I told them to search the swamps." The Router presented his throat to the Alpha's horn.

"If I overstepped my bounds, Alpha, I expect to be punished." The Router spoke calmly. The Alpha smirked.

"No." The Alpha withdrew his horn.

"You did well, Router." The Alpha permitted the Router to rise.

"BUT NOT WELL ENOUGH!" The Alpha roared as he charged his surprised Pride member into the stony wall.

"WHY ARE YOU NOT SEARCHING FOR MY DAUGHTER? WHY IS MY PRIDE CAROUSING IN THE SHADE?" The Alpha Absol spat. The Router was on his feet instantly.

"I will dispatch every available Pride, including your own, at once. Fear not Alpha. We will find her." The Router answered, before quickly departing with his new orders.

"I should have sent the bloody Zoroark to hunt with my Daughter..." The Alpha growled. The Beta was awake now. Her Alpha's temper had driven her into the corner of the crag.

"It was foolish of me… Too soon. Too direct." The Alpha was furious, but seemingly more with himself than any other.

"Now… Now she will not trust me. I doubt that even fear will make her obey me. It was a miscalculation. I should have known-"

"My Alpha!" A lone Absol charged towards the crag, shouting for the Alpha with urgency.

"Level that detritus!" The Alpha growled to his Beta, who readily tackled the approaching the upstart. The struck Absol however, was not actually an Absol. The illusion whirled and cracked as the Beta's attack broke the Zoroark's concentration. Upon realizing the ruse, the enraged Alpha grew wild and livid. Pinning the Zoroark beneath a massive paw, the Alpha flecked the helpless creature with spit as he roared.

"I told you what would happen if ever your kind impersonated an Absol! You insect! You defy my law?! If you will not serve me faithfully, then serve me as meat!" The Alpha raised himself upon his hind legs, preparing to fall with his full weight behind his horn.

"Your Daughter-!" The Zoroark cried out in terror. The Alpha fell upon him, but the edge of his horn was drawn short of decapitation.

"Your Daughter is returning to the Pack, but not for long! She is fleeing you and the Core Delta upon the morrow, and the fear of death will not waylay her! You are losing her, my Alpha!" The Zoroark gasped with panicked breaths. The Alpha removed his horn.

"Why the morrow? Why not now while she has the lead?" The Alpha growled. The Zoroark grew hesitant, as though he feared to speak of her reason.

"DO NOT WASTE MY TIME, ZOROARK!" The Alpha roared as he bit into the prone Zoroark's neck.

"She does not leave alone! She is waiting for the morning rains!" The Zoroark screamed as his blood was drawn. The Alpha spat out the Zoroark's neck.

"Who does she leave with? Why does she need the rain?!" The Alpha growled. The Zoroark swallowed, but quickly answered.

"I've discovered the identity of her 'friend' in the swamp. It is a Magikarp. They need the rain to leave the Trough, else the Magikarp will dehydrate! I do not lie, Alpha! Your Daughter protects a Magikarp! Do not punish me!" The Zoroark cowered as the madness grew in the Alpha's eyes.

"Her 'friend...' is a Magikarp?!" The Alpha began to shake. Of all the weaknesses his Daughter had ever displayed, this accusation stood unrivaled. Yet despite the incredulous report, the Alpha did not have any doubts. He knew that his Daughter had a weak heart.

"The Magikarp seems quite concerned for her. He serves your Daughter as a confidant. She… She is very fond of him, my Alpha…" The Zoroark winced as the Alpha's next roar sounded loudly enough to be heard throughout the entirety of the Pack.

"My foolish child… My pathetic Daughter… What madness has driven you to this end? Zoroark!" The Alpha fell out of his condemnation and rounded on the trembling Zoroark.

"Find my Pride. They must intercept my daughter's return. Have them distract her with a hunt. After you have conveyed my orders, you are to go into the swamp. Find the Magikarp. Bring him to me. Alive." The Alpha growled the command. The Zoroark swiftly rose to his feet.

"And my payment?" The Zoroark demanded, suddenly bold.

"YOU WILL BE PAID FOR YOUR SERVICES UPON THEIR COMPLETION! -Consider your continued life a down payment for your little disguise earlier. I haven't forgotten about how you broke my law…" The Alpha hissed with an icy warning.

"Yes, of course, my Alpha. I will see to it at once." The Zoroark turned and dashed off into the raw lands. The Alpha settled down beside his Beta, radiating a barely contained wrath. Even so, curiosity had won the Beta over. She just had to ask.

"So what is the Zoroark's payment? Why do you not just subjugate him into service?" The Beta dared ask. The Alpha smirked

"Because what the Zoroark asked for is of little value to me. And because I thought it amusing." The Alpha chuckled.

"And what worthless item does the amusing Zoroark desire?" The Beta giggled. The Alpha fixed her with his warmest smile.

"You." The Alpha said with his silky tone. The Beta laughed, and then froze. Her Alpha was still smiling at her.

"You can't be serious-" The Beta baulked.

"Of course I am. The Zoroark desires a strong Absol to hunt for him, protect him, and… amuse him. So I promised him my own Beta, who would faithfully serve him in all of his wants... Or else my Beta would die in excruciating shame and agony if she defied her Alpha's decree." The Alpha's poisonous cadence struck a note of fear and loathing in his scandalized Beta, locking her jaw in disbelief.

"I expect that the Zoroark will be quite… eager to satisfy your need for a 'touch.' You are even permitted to bear his offspring, should _he_ request it." The Alpha simpered, his tone rank with a mocking generosity.

…

Karst took her time returning to her Pack's land. Both shame and dread needed to be conquered before she faced her father. He would no doubt send for her, so as to inquire about her unwilling tryst with the Alpha Houndoom. Though it was a small mercy, barely acknowledged by the sickened Karst, she was not in heat, and the Houndoom's seed was unlikely to foster any fruit.

Pausing for a moment to retch and weep, Karst fought off the memories of her defilement. There had been no mercy, no compassion in the vile act. The Alpha Houndoom had only sought satisfaction for himself, and cared little for the tears of his victim. Karst had never been made to feel so helpless, so worthless, so… disgusting.

"Why father? How could you do this to me?" Karst moaned as she curled in on herself. Karst wanted to go back to the Trough. She felt so weak. Karst wanted her Sol. Karst needed his strength. He wouldn't judge her. He would do anything to console her.

"Sol… I wish- I wish…" Karst gagged upon her child's prayer. Karst was going to get both Solomon and herself killed. Karst knew that. Solomon knew that as well. But Solomon had given Karst a hope. A hope worth living for. A life with Solomon, even a fleeting, doomed life; was the best life that Karst could hope for. If the two lasted for just a week, Karst knew that it would be the best week of her life.

"Solomon." Karst loosened a watery giggle, the goofy fish's image smiled in her mind's eye. He drove away the fear. He conquered the illness. Karst's silly fish gave her strength with his honest, pure, unconditional love.

" _Because I love you, Karst."_

Karst couldn't stop laughing. The sweet little Magikarp loved her. The prey adoring the predator? It was almost madness, and yet... the predator also adored the prey. Karst did love him. She didn't know what else to feel for Solomon.

"You goofy, goofy little fish. My sweet and only Sol…" Karst found her bearings, and held herself firm and regal. She had nothing to fear. Solomon had given her his strength. And Karst knew that she would not fail him. Her timing could not have been better. The sounds of an approaching Pride reached Karst's ears. She saw them further down the hunting trail. Her father's own Pride. Karst was not afraid. She was the Lead Router, and the Daughter of the Alpha. Her father's Pride would remember this.

"Lead Router!" The Pride Leader called out to Karst as he and the Pride came before her.

"Speak." Karst ordered in an impatient tone. The Pride members looked to one another. They must have been expecting resistance.

"Your father sent us in search of you, upon learning that you forsook the Alpha Houndoom's Pride. He was very… cross with your disappearance." The Pride Leader tested Karst, seeking for some weakness. Karst had none to give him.

"If my father had witnessed the inferior hunting tactics of the Houndooms, he too would flee in revulsion. We actually call such knaves our allies? I cannot wait to answer the Alpha's call for a culling of their numbers… We Absols will show those feeble hounds how real predators kill…" Karst's venom was not entirely faked. As a matter of fact, Karst almost gave the order to cull the Alpha Houndoom's Pride right then and there, but she knew that such an order could only come from the Alpha Absol. Regardless of her motive, Kart's words rallied a cheer from her father's Pride.

"Surely after such a pitiful hunt, you are eager for pursuing true game with your own kind. Come. Your father has requested your assistance in a raid. The Mightyenas sent word to our Alpha. The Arcanines are moving into the Grave Stretch. They're beginning their shepherding antics early this season. Already the Mightyenas reported three Arcanine Prides guiding small herds towards the White Fault. We were to find you, and then have our Lead Router take charge of the Pride. Your father wishes to add another Arcanine head to his collection. We have been ordered to retrieve and deliver it." The Pride Leader smiled as he and his Pride lowered themselves to Karst's authority. Karst could smell a ruse, but for what reason her father was delaying Karst was unknown to her. And resisting his Pride would only end in her death. Karst had to play along.

"Very well. What news of the Arcanines' movements have our Trackers been able to divulge?" Karst asked.

"One of the Arcanine Prides failed to contain their herd. We believe that the failed Pride retreated back into the Rose Hills. The most northerly of the Arcanine Prides is being pursued by a Mightyena raiding Pride. The rabid hounds have laid claim to those Arcanine. We have been tasked with hunting the most westernly of the three. We understand that they guide a herd of Tauros, so we must adhere to caution. The herd is potentially even more dangerous than the shepherds. We leave the method of engagement to the Lead Router's discretion." The former Pride Leader fell back, and Karst took the lead.

"Then let's not keep our Alpha waiting. We hunt both the Arcanines and the Tauros tonight!" Karst roared. Her Pride answered in a battle cry.

"To the east!" Karst shouted as she and her Pride charged off in a raid formation, spreading themselves wide in order to cover more ground. Karst wondered if this really was a ploy, or if her father was truly ignorant of her plans. She would find out tonight, when her Pride returned to their Alpha's land.

…

Solomon hid under the weeds. Another visitor had come to the Trough today. Keeping low in his concealed pit, Solomon begged for the morning to come.

 _This is not good. We're getting way too much activity. This is number six, dude. Number six. If this keeps up-_

"We'll make it until morning. Stop fretting." Solomon whispered.

 _Man, I hope Karst is okay-_

"Stop. Fretting. She'll be fine." Solomon swallowed a mouthful of sandy water.

 _Okay, I'm shutting up. All that grit is going to feel real good passing out of our asshole._

Solomon remained silent. He didn't want to eat anymore dirt today. The visitor was above the Trough now, though what manner of visitor this was, Solomon did not yet know.

Three splashes sounded, and Solomon's heart grew still.

 _Wait for it…_

Five seconds later, two more splashes sounded.

"Karst!" Solomon fled his cover and swam quickly up to the surface.

"Karst?" Solomon pivoted about, looking for her figure.

"Hurry Sol! They're coming!" Karst whispered urgently. Solomon found her crouching low behind a rock.

"What's going on?" Solomon asked, swimming desperately over towards the terrified Karst.

"My father's Pride found me, but I managed to give them the slip. It's a raid, so they're spread out. We don't have much time. We have to hurry!" Karst quickly made her way into the Trough.

"Okay! I understand. I think that I can make it without the rain. Let's go!" Solomon swam right up to Karst, and the mighty Absol stooped down to pick him up out of the water with her teeth.

"I don't think that you need to worry about the rain, little fish…" Karst said slyly. Solomon fixed her with a curious eye.

"Why? Do you have something planned?" Solomon asked, concerned.

 _Something's not right-_

Karst's image shimmered and faded. A bipedal black fox with a long red mane held Solomon in its teeth.

 _OH SHIT! A ZOROARK!_ The brain recognized the predator from one of Karst's earlier descriptions.

"Well, it's not my plan per say… but I will be there to witness its inevitable conclusion." The Zoroark said gleefully.

 _Oh, fuck me..._

"Who are you? What have you done with Karst?!" Solomon flailed in the Zoroark's jaws, and the hissing predator gripped onto him with its opposable forepaws.

"Again with the fretting of trivial details. You should be far more concerned with your own fate. The Alpha of the Absols has requested an audience with you." The Zoroark spoke with a wicked grin.

 _Oh fuck._

"What have you-!?" The Zoroark slammed Solomon off of a rock.

"Be quiet. The Alpha wants you alive, but he failed to specify what condition I was to deliver you in." The Zoroark chuckled to the bleeding and battered Solomon.

"Karst- What have you done-" Another impact with the rock silenced Solomon with an eye rolling daze.

"I told you to be silent. Do you not know when to bow to your superiors? It's a wonder how you have managed to live for this long. Save your words for the Alpha Absol. I'm sure that he wants to speak with you... _Right before_ he eats you." The Zoroark was practically dancing with malicious expectations. Solomon could barely stay conscious.

 _...Game… Over, man… Game over…_

…

Karst led the Pride to the rumored location of the Arcanines, but not a trace of either the great hounds or their Tauros could be found.

"They must have used an alternative route. We must keep looking." The former Pride Leader growled.

"Possibly… or it is more likely that you dragged me out here on a wild Swanna chase." Karst turned to the Pride with a cold look. Every Pride member smiled at her.

"So what does my father have planned? Was the Houndoom not enough? Are your orders to rape me as well?" Karst asked in nonchalant voice. The Pride began to laugh.

"I dare you to try." Karst hissed as she lowered her horn. The Pride Leader approached her.

"You belong to the Houndoom's Alpha. We are forbidden from taking his prize." The Pride Leader approached her with a cocky smile. Karst didn't give him a warning growl. Without any hint of her intent, the Lead Router struck, drawing a deep gash across the flank of the Pride Leader.

"You worthless bitch!" The Pride Leader fell back cursing. Karst smirked.

"Worthless? I imagine that the Alpha places a great deal more value on my life than any of yours. After all, I am the vessel of his legacy. So how many of you can I kill before survival drives the rest to defy their Alpha?" Karst grinned, lowering her horn.

"That all depends on how much value you assign to that worthless Magikarp living in the Trough." The Pack Leader regained his composure when he witnessed the Lead Router flounder. Karst's horn trembled.

"What have you done to Solomon?"

"Solomon? The fish has a name? I'll be sure to pass this information along to our Alpha. I'm sure he'd love to know the name of his dinner tonight-" Karst never let him finish. Her horn gored the Pride Leader clean through the roof of his mouth. Throwing his seizing body aside, a bloodied, livid Karst held herself defiantly before the wary Pride.

"We are returning to the Pack. Now." Karst panted in a furious growl. Those of her father's Pride drew themselves up with fear. That was the voice of their Alpha, born from the mouth of his daughter.

"It is as the Alpha wished, Lead Router…" One of the Pride smirked. Karst struck him down for his utterance.

"No. It is my wish." Karst growled to the dying Absol, who could only shake and moan as his guts spilled from her rend.

"Do any others wish to speak?" Karst invited the remaining Pride to test her. Not one spoke.

"Then we leave." Karst turned, and charged towards her father's lands, with a nervous Pride staying a respectable distance behind her.

…

"Your daughter returns, my Alpha." The Zoroark reported. The Alpha smiled.

"Yes, I can smell her on the wind. As well as some carnal scent of my former Beta upon you. Is she everything that you hoped for?" The Alpha chuckled. The Zoroark bowed low before him.

"My Alpha has exquisite taste. Though her… commitment has been somewhat reluctant, she still obeys my commands." The Zoroark rose with a grin. The Alpha snorted.

"She was clingy. I do not approve of such affections."

"My Alpha!" An Absol herald ran forth. The Alpha waited patiently for this courier to pay respect to his superior, before acknowledging the messenger.

"Speak."

"Your Pride returns with your Daughter intact. I'm afraid that she killed two of your elites." The Absol reported. The Alpha shook his head.

"Ever the defiant child. Have them brought directly to me." The Alpha sighed.

"Yes, my Alpha." The courier was redeployed, and the Alpha Absol casually examined a chip on one of his claws.

"Is the Magikarp conscious, Zoroark?" The Alpha asked. The Zoroark nodded.

"Then go fetch it. I'm sure that my Daughter's willful return was not for the sake of her father." The Alpha ordered.

"Yes, my Alpha." The Zoroark bowed before leaving.

"So… I hold all of the pieces. I've solved the riddle. Now what is your next move, Daughter?" The Alpha asked the silent gathering. The entire Pack was present, waiting to see how this evening's drama would play out. Storm clouds gathered above the stony moor. It seemed that even the sky had darkened with the Alpha's mood.

The Pack parted down its center as a Pride returned from the raw lands. A Pride with one lonely figure standing far in its lead. The Alpha's Daughter. The Alpha's smile widened when her form came into view. She was not crushed beneath his countless betrayals. She was not weeping for her father's treachery. She was not being dragged back to her father by his faithful Pride. The Alpha's Daughter held her head high and proud, and she moved with a steady and nimble gait. And her eyes. Her eyes did not plead. Her eyes saw no fear. The Alpha began to laugh. His own daughter resembled an Alpha in her own right, fearless, controlled, and powerful. The Alpha's Daughter had returned to her father with war.

"It is good to see you, my Daughter. For I feared that you had abandoned your father when he decided to sell you to the Houndooms." The Alpha mocked as his Daughter came before him. She was unsullied by his remark.

"Give me Solomon, old cat, or your Daughter will claim your head." Karst spoke in a voice that the Alpha had never expected to hear. His Daughter spoke to him like an Alpha. Karst's father began to laugh.

"So it is in losing her only friend that my Daughter finds the nerve to defy her weakness. I cannot hide my disgust. Yet all the same, your challenge has made your father proud." The Alpha cackled, and his Pack laughed with him. Hundreds of mocking chortles. Hundreds of enemy voices, and Karst stood unshaken before them all.

"I didn't come to speak. You will return to me my friend, and grant us safe passage out of the Grave Stretch. Or I will kill you and any who stand with you." Karst spoke in that harsh voice, certain and strong. The laughter faded. Even the Alpha had lost his mirth.

"You speak bravely for a sow. One might even say foolishly." The Alpha fixed his Daughter with a cold eye.

"If my words are wasting your time, then let us finish this now." Karst lowered her horn in a clear challenge. The Alpha found his laugh.

"To think that you would defy me and die for a Magikarp. Your brother would be so proud of big sister, wouldn't he?" The Alpha spat.

"Solomon, or your life. Choose one." Karst had no weakness. She would not fall to her father's wounding words. Despite himself, the Alpha's chest glowed with pride.

"Zoroark! The fish." The Alpha shouted. Karst did not lower her horn. Her eyes never left her father's. His anger was only matched by hers.

"Today of all days… You are truly my child…" The Alpha murmured under his breath. The Zoroark brought a gasping fish to the Alpha Absol.

"No. To me." Karst ordered. The Zoroark faltered.

"Come daughter. Do not be rude. Introduce me to this… Solomon." The Alpha spoke in his silky voice. Karst growled.

"He is alive, as I'm sure you can tell from his pathetic flailing." The Alpha put his massive paws around the gasping fish.

"Karst?" Solomon looked at her with fear from his prison within the Alpha's clutch.

"It's okay, Solomon. I'm here. I'll protect you." Karst spoke, and her voice softened when addressing the fish.

"Karst?" The Alpha mused.

"Karst… He named you Karst?" The Alpha actually seemed surprised.

"I am not your Daughter. I am not the Lead Router. I am who I choose to be, and I choose to be Karst." Karst answered her father in that deadly tone. The Alpha smiled to himself.

"Well then, Karst… Entertain me. Tell me, what do you think the Alpha of the Absols is pondering now?" The Alpha covered Solomon's body with crossed paws.

"The Alpha is considering who should die first. The Magikarp or his defiant daughter." Karst answered in an iron voice. The Alpha chuckled.

"Not quite." The Alpha chided, his paws kneading the hidden fish below them. Karst was silent. She wouldn't ask. He would tell her, or she would attack him. The Alpha saw it in her eyes.

"If only you had born male…" The Alpha whispered. Karst stiffened.

"It's too late for such thoughts now, old cat. Male or female, I would still oppose you." Karst replied dryly. Her father chuckled again, but their was no joy in his laughter. Only sadness.

"Very well. I will tell you what I am planning. You will go to the Houndooms willingly, and you will return with my heir. When you give me my cub, I will give you your fish. And then you will leave the Core Delta. Permanently. Never to return to your home." The Alpha spoke softly.

"No." Karst answered. The Pack began to back up. Not one creature in the Core Delta had ever dared to tell the Alpha "No."

"No?" The Alpha asked incredulously, as if the word was foreign to his ears.

"No." Karst repeated. The Pack lowered their horns and tightened ranks. A challenge had been issued.

"I'm being generous, Daughter. Why do you spit upon my goodwill?" The Alpha asked. Karst kicked the earth with her hind paw.

"You will never touch my cub, nor my friend… old cat." Karst whispered, waiting for her father to rise to her challenge. Her father shook his head.

"Then let me make you this offer, female…" The Alpha denied Karst's challenge on the premise of her sex.

"I will kill the fish, and eat him while the Pack breaks your legs. Then I will call upon the Alpha of the Houndooms, and he will force a cub into your womb. Then we will wait for the birth of your child, and the first meat that he will sample will be stripped from the bones of his own mother!" The Alpha rose as he roared the end. Solomon was being crushed beneath the Alpha's paw.

"You cannot challenge me, bitch. You are not male, and you cannot inherit the title of Alpha. Defy my will, and all that you fear will come to pass! I swear to you, that this... fish... will only be the first course served in your life of agony!" The Alpha roared. His Pack was grinning wickedly as they closed in on the outcast before them. Karst began to tremble as the futility of her mission dawned upon her.

"Karst… Just run…" Solomon spoke, and the Alpha roared against his scales. Karst's eyes grew wide and panicked, seeing her father's jaws so close to her friend.

"Don't worry about me, Karst… I made my choice. I chose you." Solomon smiled happily at her, even as the tears formed in his eyes. And no sooner had those words been spoken, then the Alpha's teeth buried into Solomon's flank.

"SOL!" Karst broke into a charge, horn lowered, tip aimed at her father's neck.

He dodged her killing blow, dropping Solomon.

But took her horn to his shoulder none the less.

Karst pulled her horn free of her father's bone, just as a mighty paw rose to smite her. Karst was thrown against the stone. Quickly, Karst tried to raise herself, but the Alpha was faster than she, and his charge sent Karst bodily into the pack. Bleeding from a deep wound, the livid Alpha slammed a paw down upon the stunned Magikarp. Karst rose, before falling. Her body was broken from her father's rage. The Pack watched the violent exchange in awe, and only now that their Alpha stood as the victor could their wits return. Panting in a ragged wind, the wounded Alpha met his frightened Daughter's gaze. Her eyes fell from his, and sought the fish beneath his heel. Her eyes began to water when she realized that she had failed him. She cried for failing her friend, but not for failing her father. Tears. Such weakness.

"Kill her." The Alpha heard his own voice speak. Something warm pooled in his eyes, and it coursed in rivers down his cheeks.

"KARST!" The fish under the Alpha's paw screamed as she disappeared beneath the Pack's barrage.

"KARST!" Solomon screamed again, and the Alpha crushed him with a twisting heel.

"This our doing. This our punishment. This is the consequence of our choices. Watch her die, you feeble thing! This is the price you and I must pay!" The Alpha roared through his own tears, roaring down at the sobbing Magikarp.

"SAVE HER! SOMEBODY SAVE HER!" Solomon screamed, and the Alpha released the struggling fish. Swooping down to silence the weeping creature, the Alpha buried his teeth into Solomon's body. Lifting the doomed fish from the stone, the Alpha began to masticate the Magikarp's scales.

" _ **KAAARSSST!"**_ Solomon roared her name in a voice that no Magikarp could possess. Solomon's body began to glow a vivid blue. The Alpha spat him out in shock. The entire pack fell back from the force of that one terrible, powerful roar. The blue light grew brighter and more massive, before condensing into a colossal symmetrical image. Something was happening to the Magikarp. Something big.


	7. Chapter VII: The Cost of the Third Trial

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 **V**

 **...**

 **-A-**

 **..v..**

 **Chapter VII: The Cost of the Third Trial**

 _The Growlithe pup chased a moth about its frantic flight, white wings fluttering, creating a mesmerizing afterimage. Red eye dots upon those wings glared and blinked at the pup, their illusion cast by the insect's vivid flight. Gold antenna furled back in effort to streamline the moth, giving it the appearance of some other worldly device._

" _Child, leave that poor creature alone." The Grandsire Arcanine of the pup grumbled from his lounge in the shade. The pup ceased his gaming pursuit, but eagerly followed the white moth as it alighted upon a stone, gently fanning its red eyed wings and adjusting its golden feathered antennae in the fading sunlight._

" _It's looking at me, Grandfather." The pup spoke in wonderment. The elderly Arcanine groaned as he rose to his feet._

" _It is a Watcher of the hunt. It is a symbol of the balance that the Arcanines cherish. Eons ago, it was a moth very much like this one who first guided our ancestors to the Rose Hills, and it was that same moth who taught us the Law of the Hunt." The Arcanine came to stand next to his Grandson, who failed to repress a yawn._

" _Have you no respect for the Law of the Hunt, child?" The Grandfather asked wearily. The pup shook his head._

" _Everyday, I hear of the Law of the Hunt. I know what it is, and understand why we, and we alone follow it." The pup groaned. The Grandfather chuckled._

" _Then tell the moth what you have learned." The Grandfather smiled. The pup looked up at him, curious. It was a just a moth. What did it care for the Law of the Hunt?_

" _Well?" the Grandfather asked patiently. The pup could only stare. Was his Grandsire serious?_

" _The moth won't wait forever for your answer, child." The Grandfather said with a chipped yellow grin. The pup swallowed, and decided it was best to entertain his senile Grandfather._

" _I have learned that the Law of the Hunt strives for balance. It was given to all hunters at the beginning of time, but only the Arcanine remember it. The Law teaches us not to take more than we need from the prey, for we depend upon the prey to live. If we take too much from the prey, then not only will the prey fail, but so too will the predators. From the herds, take no more than one female for every three males. Eat the weak, but spare the children, for without their children; the herd will wane. Hunt not the herd who suffers for lack, but guide them unto plenty; for without the herd, the predators will fall. Guard the herds from the wicked, whom you will know by their hunt for excess, who needlessly slaughter the prey and damn their own children to hunger." The pup recited the Law of the Hunt to the moth, whose wings grew still throughout the telling. The pup sighed._

" _So much for the Law of the Hunt. The Grave Stretch's packs are stronger than we are, and they have only become so strong by violating the Law. Stupid moths and their stupid Laws…" The pup grumbled. The moth once more took to the air, but rather than flee, the moth instead landed upon the startled pup's nose._

" _It seems that the Watcher refutes your assessment." The Grandfather chuckled. The pup could only stare in shock at the fearless insect on his nose._

" _Why does he not flee? I am a hunter." The pup sounded wounded. The ancient Arcanine at his side roared with laughter, and the moth finally left the pup's nose, flying off towards the Great Expanse._

" _Because the moth knows that you will uphold the Law. It has no need to fear an Arcanine or their pups. We are the guardians, not the destroyers. It is our legacy, and you and your generation will teach the Law to the your children and your children's children, so that our Law is never forgotten." The Arcanine spoke softly, and for a moment, the pup's eyes grew distant, as though with wisdom. But then, as bleary eyes closed and watered, a yawning pup betrayed his Grandfather's hope._

" _Tell me a story, Grandpa. A story about hunters." The pup eagerly looked up at his father's father, and watched as the old dog withered with a sigh._

" _The impetuousness of youth... Very well. I will tell you a story. A story about hunters." The Arcanine smiled down at the suspicious pup, who could smell a moral of the Law roasting in his Grandfather's telling._

" _It has something to do with our Law, doesn't it?" The pup groaned, and the Grandfather cackled._

" _Of course it does. You are losing sight of the Law, because you do not believe that the Law punishes those who violate it. But this is an ancient tale, a tale of the most deadly and feared of all hunters. A Pack, whose weakest members had strength well beyond the Alpha of any Pack today. A solitary hunter who could eat the entirety of the Absols' Pack as if they were mere herds of Tepigs." The Grandfather looked at the pup, and saw the child's eyes widen with excitement._

" _The most terrible of hunters? How could one predator make prey of a Pack? Tell me Grandfather!" The pup begged. The Grandfather settled down, and took his time, enjoying the beauty of the setting sun. The pup beside him was growing anxious, but patience was a lesson enforced amongst the Arcanine. With a weary sigh, did the elder finally summon up the tale._

" _Many thousands of years ago, there existed a Pack of hunters. Though they often hunted alone, at times they would pour across the land in the hundreds, eating everything the sky, land, and water had to offer. The Blue Serpents, born from the sea. So great were these hunters that they feared nothing. Not the Wailords in the ocean, nor the Salamencia of the sky, or even the Snorlaxes from the plains. No depth of the ocean could be spared the gnashing of their maws, and so mighty were their coils that the Serpents could slither into the farthest reaches of the heavens. The land between the wind and the water was their richest bounty, and all who lived within these realms, lived to feed the Blue Serpents." The old Arcanine groaned, and rolled onto his side._

" _They could hunt in the ocean, sky, and land? These Blue Serpents?" The pup asked in awe. The Grandfather's gaze grew distant._

" _Yes. All was their domain. All the elements answered to their dominance. The Blue Serpents were massive, almost as long as the Onix, and they were armored in scale too thick to rend with claw, horn, tusk, or tooth. Their jaws were both wide and tall. So large were their mouths that they could swallow a Donphan whole-"_

" _You're making this up. No predator is that strong-"_

" _You asked me for a story, pup. Do not interrupt your elders when they speak." The Arcanine growled to his Grandson, who crouched low with an apology._

" _Now… Where was I?" The geriatric Arcanine seemed lost._

" _-With a mouth that could swallow a Donphan whole?"_

" _Ah yes, the mouth. It was just one of the Blue Serpent's many weapons. A tail so strong that it could split the mountains, a body so heavy and hard that they could crush a forest like a field of grass. A crest so sharp that its cut could bleed even the wind, and a rage so fierce that it could scar the very land." The Arcanine murmured, and the pup grew enraptured. Giving his elder time to collect his thoughts, the pup strained his patience._

" _So mighty were the Blue Serpents that nothing had the strength to resist them. The Blue Serpents ate the Mamoswine in the coldest mountains, and learned from the meat how to make frigid their fangs. Upon eating the Dragonairs in the deepest jungles, the Serpents learned the Dragon's mystic dance from the hunt. When eating the Rhyperiors of the most barren deserts, the Serpents learned how to shake the earth with their roar alone. In time, the ever hunting Serpents grew varied in their majesty, and weapons most distinct were added to their arsenal. The Houndoom's flames, the Luxray's lightning, and the Gigalith's stones; all that they ate became a part of them. And in their all consuming hunt, the mighty only became the mightiest." The Arcanine rested his drying mouth. But the pup still had doubts to be voiced._

" _But if these Serpents were so powerful, why have I never heard of them before? Why don't they still hunt today?" The pup asked skeptically. The Grandfather wheezed a sigh._

" _They were too successful. Too prominent. Too powerful. Too greedy. The Serpents were mighty, this is true, but the Law of the Hunt is mightier still." The elderly Arcanine replied._

" _The seas were purged, the lands laid barren, and even the skies grew empty; all fell to the great wyrms' hunger. Soon the world had nothing left to offer the mightiest of the hunters. Nothing, except the penalty of a broken Law. Hunger. And so the Serpents turned on one another, the thousands feeding on each other across their domains. So hungry and many were they, that it is said; in their final hunt the very oceans turned red, and the sky itself rained their blood upon the land. They ate, and they ate, and they ate, all eating one another; until only one Serpent stood alone amongst the ruin of its species. And when that final Serpent realized that it was the last of its kind, did the strongest predator beg for absolvement. And answering this forlorn Serpent's prayer, was a white moth. A white moth who landed upon that Serpent's jaw, and whispered to the Serpent the terms of its penance." The Arcanine paused, and looked to his Grandson._

" _Where did the Serpents err, child?" The Grandfather asked. The pup swallowed, and quietly answered._

" _They forgot the Prime Tenant from the Law of the Hunt. Do not take needlessly." The Grandfather smiled fondly._

" _What do you imagine became of that final Serpent, pup?"_

" _He did not die alone?" The pup chanced a guess. The Arcanine snorted._

" _Not quite. For the crime of wasting the world, the world would waste the Serpents. In its penance, the final Serpent went into the sea, and tore every scarred scale from its body. In losing its scales, the Serpent would perish, but some form of its species would persist. For from the shorn scales were born a fish, weak and feeble, small and insignificant. This fish would be countless in their numbers, for it was their only means to survive. For this new creature, this child of the Serpents, would not serve as its ancestors had; as the mightiest of the predators... but rather as the meekest of the prey. So were the first Magikarp born, from the death of the final Serpent. The Serpents, who would never rise again, unless one of their descendants paid heed to the Law of the Hunt. Damning the Magikarps to fulfill the most noble of hunts; To guide, and to spare, for the future of those who follow. Magikarps, who cannot even hunt the lowest of life. And so did the Law of the Hunt punish the Serpents' greed, as the Law will surely punish all who defy it." The Grandfather finished the story, and settled his great maned head upon his crossed forepaws. Fixing an eye on the pup who sat near him in awe, the Grandfather awaited the questions._

" _So the Serpents really did exist?" The pup asked in a whisper._

" _Yes."_

" _And the Law made them into the Magikarps?"_

" _Did you not hear the end?"_

" _I did, but- How?" The pup asked, worried. The Grandfather chuckled._

" _Because the Law is balance, and it always corrects those who test it."_

 _The pup shook his head. That was not an answer to the question, but the pup knew better than to press the old dog for a further explanation._

" _So they were feared, these Serpents?"_

" _They were venerated as harbingers of destruction. Their very name was a call to flee and hide. A call that smothered all hope, and tamed all with dread." The Grandfather answered._

" _What manner of call? What was the name of these Serpents?" The pup asked in a fearful whisper. The Arcanine reluctantly murmured something into his mane._

" _Speak up, Grandfather. I cannot hear you." The pup edged closer. The elder sighed, before darkly whispering._

" _The ancient call. The siren of death. The Serpent's name… was Gyarados."_

…

"GYARADOS!" An Absol screamed, and the entirety of the pack fell back in fear and awe. Gyarados. A name that had only been whispered in tall tales for eons now returned to its ancient call. Gyarados. The Endless Hunger. The Invincible Predator. The Ultimate Hunter.

The Alpha stood closest to this Revived Nightmare. This Eldritch Titan. The azure light had only just faded, and the beast was already releasing its signature roar. Sapphire blue, thick, chitinous plates of armor encased the entirety of this creature. Four tri-forked fins tipped in razored spines, ran linear down the beast's back. A fluked tail, possessing a girth greater than an elder tree's trunk, tapered down into a fleshy serrated web; slamming down upon the ground with enough force to shake the earth in a thunderous crack. Yet as monstrous as the body was, the head held the cruelest apparatus. Long pliant barbels flexed ever so slightly in the still wind; these sensors portraying visions of both the thermal-life and the electrical patterns of foreign nervous systems directly into the ancient tyrant's brain. A massive mouth, bordering ridicule in its anatomically exaggerated expanse, split open; and primordial evolution revealed a sickening design. Though the fangs were small and sparse; save for the wicked primary canines, a bony plate crowned the roof of the Serpent's mouth, and a muscular barbed tongue stood as a foreboding testament to the crushing power of that maw. A dark blue, three-pointed crest, stood like a jeweled obelisk upon its brow, and such a monument left the air moaning with every motion of the Serpent's head. Below this impressive crest, were the small red eyes, slit pupiled, and perpetually furrowed in unrestrained rage.

Yet for every weapon displayed, for every device of extrapolated survival exhibited stark naked to the Serpent's terrified witnesses, every crucial element of its fierce and impossible demeanor failed to justify the most obvious feature of this primeval killer. The sheer scale of the beast was beyond all reckoning. The towering colossus inhabited a span exceeding even the scope of its oceanic origins. Gyarados. The Eater of Alphas. The Savage Destroyer.

The Alpha Absol shrank away from the monster's bulk, and found himself cowering when it moved. The Serpent was no lumbering beast. Sinister grace gave its motions a surreal effect, as the undulating coils swept in and out in a rapid, menacing slither. Yet the head stayed unnervingly detached from the movements of its lower body, seemingly riding steady atop a living typhoon.

The Pack broke when the Serpent advanced. Many of the Pack members scattered, hundreds charged hysterically into the night, crying out in shrieks of fear and madness. The legends lived. A myth was reborn. Those who stayed in that craggy field were too paralyzed to flee, unable to move their numb bodies or tear their wide eyes away from this long-lost analogue, for such was the horror and magnificence of the creature before them.

The Serpent halted its menacing advance before one lonely figure in the dirt. One Absol too wounded to flee. One dissident, who moments before, had been called to death by her own father.

Glassy eyes looked up at the blue Serpent above her. Eyes, already distant with pain. Eyes, already seeing past the veil of life. Laying her head down in submission, the Absol waited to die. Regardless of the deathly shadow looming over her, the Absol's life was already forfeit. Blood welled from gaping wounds with every feeble beat of her heart. And with every drop spent, every red tear shed, the fragile veil shifted further back. A mind of chilling apathy, a broken spirit awaiting its end, a wasting body failing to sustain. Thunder sounded beyond, and the first rains of the flood began to fall, diffusing and spreading out her creeping puddle of blood.

"Karst…" The Serpent spoke her name in a mournful breath, its weakness audible in spite of the rumbling bellow born from its throat to utter speech. Karst feebly looked up at the mighty Serpent, and saw Solomon's tears falling from its eyes.

…

The Alpha skirted around the grieving beast, and jarred his shaken Pride with a horn.

"Move to engage. Fall back when it lunges. Try to lower its head." The Alpha whispered to his Pride, who in terror, could barely remembered his authority.

"Fight the beast with me, or I will kill you when you flee." The Alpha reclaimed his Pride from the clutching dread, using his collected calm to fortify the threat.

The Alpha had devised a plan.

"Shake the beast, stand by me, and await my command." The Alpha hissed. The Pride nodded numbly, and made their grave advance towards the Serpent.

"So even the Great Wyrm Gyarados weeps. Tears shed in futile passion. Oh, how the mighty are rendered meek..." The Alpha taunted the crying snake, but for all the cruelty in his words, little did the Serpent respond.

"Have you no oaths of vengeance? No spine for justice? Are all your great tools dulled, beast?" The Gyarados remained silent. The Alpha roared.

"ANSWER ME!" The Pack was stirring. The monster was as still as a stone. The Pack's fear was retreating on sight of those tears, and their bloodlust returned in the roar of their Alpha's words. Rallied, the Pack began to approach, awful smiles worn to mock the giant's tears.

"What would you have me say?" The Serpent's calm voice halted all breath. Looking up from the dying Absol, the Gyarados's weary eyes met the Alpha's.

"That I am now whole? That it was not my choice? That I have lost my only comfort? That a sacrifice has been made, but it was not mine to make?"

"What manner of rot is this?! Speak to be understood, snake!" The Alpha spat, and his Pride once more drew wind.

"She was your child. She was my friend. How? How could you harm your own daughter?"

So broken and sorrowful was the Serpent's voice, and so profound were these words, that the whole Pack was held suspended in their collective disbelief. The gathered shadows of the moor were cast in a sudden cadence of lightning, and the Serpent's form withered. The Alpha found his voice first, and offered it to the Serpent in a growl.

"Go. Now. Before I answer you in oath." The Serpent turned back to the fallen Lead Router, his voice trembling. Weakling. A mountain crumbled before the now eager Pack, as the Alpha lead his chorus of cruel laughs.

"And what manner of oath could one so feeble enforce? Gyarados or not, it is the heart of a Magikarp that drives failed warnings from your tongue." The Alpha cackled. A rumble long, low, and deadly sounded from the Serpent's throat. Thunder, born from the heavy sky, echoed that growl's primal note.

"An oath of war." The Serpent's voice changed dramatically, deep and decisive. Cold and ragged. The mourning visage burned away in the heat of rage. The true nature of the Gyarados was slowly revealed, as the red eyes dilated, and a snarl was rendered deafening.

"To slay a Gyarados… Oh, what a saga…" The Alpha murmured.

…

Solomon felt the sensation growing. He had known anger. He knew what fury was. But this was different. This rage was a being, and his body was its shape. The Pack was gathering behind their Alpha's Pride. Hundreds of Absols stood opposed to this new Solomon. And yet he knew not fear. Meat. Meat surrounded him. Nothing but meat.

The Pack closed in on the the unshaken beast, horns lowered and smiles offered in wicked mocking. As a ring of Absols encircled the beast, the entire moor grew still with the waiting.

To whom would merit the first blow?

The Serpent was the first to strike. The Absols parted before his falling maw, and when the Gyarados's head drove into the vacant ground, the earth trembled beneath their feet. Upon witnessing the feral power and speed of the Serpent, many Absols regretted their decision to engage. But that regret was short lived, as the Serpent's head drew upon its body, and a wall of armored plates razed the Absols' line. The Alpha and his Pride skirted about the Gyarados's blind attack, even as dozens of Absols were thrown back by the whipping bulk.

"Present a challenge. Lower the Serpent's head, and hold its attention steady!" The Alpha barked to his Pride. The Pride dispersed, while the Alpha stood watch. He needed to learn this beast. The Alpha needed to discern the truth. He had only a legend's account on how to slay a Gyarados.

The Absols' front line broke, yet the Gyarados did not give pursuit. Instead the ancient beast fell back, peculiarly staying close to the dissident's corpse. For whatever reason, the Gyarados was hesitant to press its advantage on the faltering Pack, choosing to retreat and defend rather than assault.

The Absols regrouped, and reformed their front line. Advancing again towards the crouching monster, the Pack stood ready for the Gyarados's preemptive strike.

But it exchanged jaws for tail, and the stones split beneath its deceptive blow, scattering the Pack once more. Now the Absols learned caution in their foray. This beast was not weak, far from it. Though the Gyarados seemed oddly restrained. The Serpent struck not to kill, but to disperse and demoralize. To cripple if need be, but it seemed that the Serpent did not seek to end life.

"What manner of monster are you?" The Alpha hissed. His Pride moved in closer, goading the Serpent into battle, yet the Serpent seemed wary of their tactic, and his coils tightened around the Lead Router.

He was protecting a corpse.

The Routers adjusted their tactics accordingly. A single Router lunged forward as if to attack, and then fell back when the beast moved to intercept, allowing another Router to harry the Gyarados's blindside. But their mighty horns could only glance off of the blue scales, and the beast was beginning to learn them. An earth shaking roar sounded from the monster, and the Serpent ascended on its tail, straightening heavenwards to the fullest of its balanced height. Even the Alpha's breath was taken away. A blue and yellow pillar had suddenly risen from the level terrain, topped by a dragon's head. The Pride fell back in a mad rush, well aware that such a height dispensed incredible range, but the Gyarados was only posturing. The Serpent closed its scales once more around the Alpha's daughter, and drew itself into a tight coil. The Gyarados would not leave the fallen Lead Router undefended.

There was the advantage that the Alpha had been seeking.

"Does she still live, snake? Has she spoken any final words of sorrow for her father?" The Alpha left his rock, and made to join his Pride in the fray. A rumbling hiss was the Gyarados's only reply.

"Do you even know what I did to her? Do you know why she hates me?" The Alpha spoke in his silky voice, further enraging the beast before him. The Alpha marched forward alone, seemingly unconcerned with the furious Gyarados that stood but a strike away.

"I arranged a social visit for her with one of our allies. I placed her into a situation where _he_ would have the advantage…" The Alpha was casually examining a paw, smirking more to himself than the Serpent. But the Alpha's words and mannerisms had their effect upon the beast. The Alpha could feel the monster's shocked silence.

"...You understand me, then?" The Alpha grinned at the horrified Gyarados. The Serpent was wrestling in the throes of disbelief.

"You- You- Your… own-?" Solomon staggered over the words.

"I blame her of course. I gave her ample opportunity to bear my heir, yet she avoided my wishes with an almost… tenacious disregard. I had her raped, just for my simple want of a cub." The Alpha stated wickedly. Solomon's breaths were jagged and sharp. His eyes clenched and his mouth flexed in fury. The Serpent's entire body trembled with a mounting hatred.

"-Does that surprise you?" The Alpha feigned shock, sarcasm rank in his smile.

Solomon raised himself higher once more with a deep intake of breath.

-And then released that inhaled wind in a river of flames.

The stream was directed at the Alpha, and age old skill bade him to evade. The intense heat born from the those flames still melted hair and blistered skin, regardless of Alpha's maneuver.

The Serpent followed the flames with a sudden lunge. The Alpha was forced into a hasty retreat. The expansive scale of these attacks was more than enough to compensate for their poor coordination. The Gyarados had forgotten its restraint, and the Serpent now gave the Alpha a true battle, where pure skill stood in contest to raw power.

Solomon was committed. The loving creature within the Serpent's core was lost to the fury born of instinct. Destruction was its only purpose. Dominance was its only desire. A spitting devil had risen where an angel once wept. This ancient monster was now channeling its true nature.

And though the Alpha was proving elusive, his aging body was tiring. The reckless beast opposed to him seemed inexhaustible. In this war, youth and sheer might would burn brighter than experience and finesse. The battle had already been decided. Only time now denied the Gyarados victory. Again and again, the Serpent wounded only the earth, yet no misguided blow offered the Alpha an opening. Every attack was subsequently followed by another. Where maw failed, tail rose to riposte. When distance separated the Alpha Absol from the Gyarados, flames walled any further retreats. Now the Alpha understood why the legends spoke of the Serpents in such reverence, for such a mighty adversary could fall a Pack in effortless abandon. Every desperate juke of the Alpha spent more of his waning strength, denying more of his conviction. The Alpha had need of a new a tactic. And the Alpha needed it soon.

Of course, the stage for such a tactic had already been set; it was simply awaiting the Alpha's exploitation.

"My daughter! Kill her!" The Alpha roared to his Pride, and his gamble told within the terror born of the Serpent's eyes. The tiny pupils became massive, and the beast staggered. Solomon had abandoned Karst in his pursuit of the Alpha, and now his greatest weakness was laid bare to the Pride.

"Karst!" Solomon wheeled about, racing to defend the dying Absol from her kin, while the Alpha moved to intercept the Serpent's blind redirection.

"STAY AWAY FROM HER!" Solomon scattered the Pride in his haste, coiling protectively around the fallen Lead Router. The Alpha charged up an inclining stone, and leapt with all speed from its summit. The Serpent had erred.

And one error could alter fate.

Solomon heard an airborne roar above him, and lifted his azure head from his coils; seeking the source of that triumphant bellow.

And Solomon beheld the Alpha descending, horn aimed at a Serpent's brow.

A chipped and jagged horn pierced the left eye of the Serpent, and drove deep into the socket.

Pain.

The Serpent did not know pain.

And yet, pain learned the Serpent with the Alpha's decisive blow.

Solomon was overwhelmed by the violence that rose from within; consuming conscious and reason, claiming both heart and mind.

Feral rage became an entity, and it laid waste to the poor soul that dared place itself in futile resistance before it.

Solomon was no more.

Yet the beast did not fall.

The Alpha had failed. His blow had not cored the brain. And now the unbridled power of the Gyarados was known in this land once more.

The Alpha had never seen such speed. None of his Pack had. The monster tore apart the ground in a bloodied dance, before a shrieking Serpent brought its wrath down upon all who stood before it. The blue beast was everywhere, screaming ruin in a concerto of endings.

Absols were swallowed whole, entire Prides pulped beneath a tail. Retreating quarters were engulfed in flames, and the earth split open to swallow any who stood static in shock.

"RETREAT!" The Alpha himself spoke the words that no Alpha of the Absols had uttered in centuries. There was no contesting this force. There wasn't a prayer for victory.

Survival was the only hope.

The Absols leapt over the newly rent faults, and dispersed into the cover of the woods, while the Serpent's flames licked at their shadows.

A roar of victory chased the fleeing Absol Pack, and the Gyarados turned his rage from the prey and onto the land, shaking, breaking, burning, and crushing; the Serpent forged absolute destruction.

It was only after exhaustion claimed the wheezing Gyarados, that Solomon could remember his own name.

He could not see out of his left eye, for the Alpha's blow had claimed its sight, but the other senses of the Gyarados detected a morsel of life, faint, though persistent, still remaining in the cracked and blazing moor.

Paying his own inhibitions no heed, Solomon hastened to the dying Lead Router.

"...Karst?" Solomon whispered when he came upon her still form.

The Absol was silent.

"Karst, talk to me… Please…"

Her neck jerked suddenly, and her glassy eyes tilted with the angle of her head.

Solomon's breath was caught within his throat.

"Hey, Sol… You look bigger?" Karst smiled at him, though blood fouled the expression with its trickle oozing past her lips.

"Karst, what do I do?" Solomon begged, one eye of his weeping tears, the other eye weeping blood.

"...Just go."

Solomon froze.

"...Look at you. You're strong now, Sol… A Gyarados. You can make it without me, you silly fish…" Karst giggled in failing breath.

"...No..." Despite Solomon's transformation, the heart could still be heard in his new intonation. Karst choked on the guilt.

"I'm sorry, Sol… But I can't-"

A dark blue crest interrupted Karst, as it softly sank into the soil before her. Solomon angled his head, and the earth below Karst bulged and split in the cracking of grassy roots and the settling of tiny stones.

"-Sol?"

"Where do I take you? I'll take care of you, Karst. Just don't give up." Solomon's voice pleaded as he gently bore Karst upon his brow.

"Where can I keep you safe?"

Karst felt a lump form within her throat.

But the giggles fought their way past it, meek though they sounded.

"Take care of me? What- How…" Karst coughed on her mirth, flecking the blue crest that she leaned against with blood.

"Please, Karst… I don't know where to go." Solomon begged from below her.

Karst swallowed the lump in her throat. It was a vain hope. A foolish prayer.

But it was the only way that Karst would not be separated from her Solomon.

"South. Find the river."

The Serpent leaned forward, and Karst was held steady against his crest, as Solomon put down his full speed to the south.

…

"We're here. Which way do I go now?" Solomon halted before the swirling water of the Song River. Karst swallowed her drying tongue, and found her voice in a shallow whisper.

"East. Follow the river east. When you find the forked tributary, follow the stream upriver and into the Sandy Glen."

Solomon didn't hesitate or delay, as he now entered the river for want of more speed and level terrain for his ward.

"Where are we going, Karst?" Solomon asked in a soft voice. Karst inhaled a warbling breath.

"To the Audino. Sol, listen… She… She might not help me."

"Why not? What does she do?" Solomon asked, voice fearful. Karst closed her eyes tightly.

"She's a healer… Our Pack drove her out of her home. But before we- My father… ate her children, and made her watch." Karst murmured.

"What? Why?" Solomon almost froze in shock.

Karst could feel tears forming in her eyes.

"...Because she couldn't save my brother…"

There was no need to hide her tears now. Karst could weep in shame and loss. Death was more likely to ease the pain than the Audino was.

"Sol… Can I… Can I talk to you?" Karst retched.

"Of course, Karst. You don't need to ask-"

"-Sol." Karst interrupted him. Solomon waited silently, as the storm above them began to shift into a new fury.

"-I did something terrible, Sol. Long before I met you. I don't know if I'm going to see the morning, so-"

"-You'll see the morning, Karst. Don't talk like that. You'll see the morning, and I'll see it with you." Solomon was speaking differently. Karst could hear a conviction not formally present in her friend's voice. Solomon didn't seem quite so…

...Awkward.

"Did you change, Sol?" Karst asked softly.

"Don't worry about it, Karst. Just talk. I'll listen." Solomon answered in a hollow voice. Karst hesitated, but the wind in her lungs fed words nonetheless.

"-Well… When I- When I was a cub, I- had a little brother." Karst closed her eyes against the memories.

"A little brother?" Solomon's curious voice asked.

"Yes. My father's heir. The future Alpha. He was born two seasons after me, the last child of my mother, before the illness killed her…" Karst steadied herself, and fought through the shame.

"My father… Well, he's always been cruel, but he became even more vicious when my mother died. He became… obsessed with his legacy. Before my brother came along, my father used to play with me. He used to laugh…" Karst gagged. The memories were too much.

"-Was your father… Kind to you?" Sol dared to ask.

"...He was my father. But he was also the Alpha of the Pack. His offspring needed to be stronger than the rest of the Pack, so kindness? I don't... -He tried." Karst swallowed.

"...But my little brother… He became the favorite when my mother died. I just became a burden to my father. I tried as hard as I could to please him. I was a far more proficient huntress than my little brother, but… My father favored his heir regardless." Karst curled her chin against her chest, as the the shame began to rise.

"My brother was… Well, he was like you. Goofy. Nervous. Needy. Sweet. My father had little tolerance for such softness, and he was determined to harden my little brother into an Alpha. But… When my brother and I played together, away from my father, my brother could be who he was supposed to be…" Karst felt a new wave of tears drowning out her voice.

"But I was young. Selfish. Jealous. I tried so hard to be the Alpha that my father wanted, but my weak brother was the only one my father cared about. I was… I wasn't kind to my little brother, and I tried to exploit his softness."

"You were young, Karst. You were pushed away by your father. You can't begrudge a child for want of a father." Solomon spoke softly, trying to comfort his wounded friend.

"It doesn't make it right. My little brother was the only true friend that I had… And I treated him like a toy." Karst coughed, and more blood was carried out on her breath.

"Easy, Karst. Take it slow. I just found the fork. Keep talking." Solomon calmly reported from beneath Karst, filling the Absol with some small wonder.

"Why do you care about me, Sol?" Karst whispered.

"Because you are my friend, Karst. Now please, talk to me." That was Solomon's voice, but it sounded so different. So…

Confident.

"Well… If I may be short, Sol? I killed my brother."

Solomon came to a stop in the water. Karst gave up. This was the end, and Karst should at least attempt to atone before she died.

"...Just leave me, Sol. I'm not worthy of your friendship." Karst closed her eyes. The Serpent below her trembled.

"Talk." Solomon's voice betrayed his anger, and he swam even further against the current.

"...I told you, Sol. I'm not worth it. You don't need me anymore-"

"I said talk. Not whine."

This was not Solomon beneath Karst. Not the Solomon that she had known, and yet-

"-What happened to you, Sol? Will I ever see my goofy fish again?" Karst whispered in dry loss. Solomon seemed reluctant to speak of it, but having heard Karst's heart poured out to him, Solomon would not conceal his truth from her.

"...Something happened. I don't remember what I was or where I came from… But now I remember who I was. At least- I feel like I'm… whole…" Solomon sounded frustrated, and his strange words brought a curious look from Karst.

"You remember?"

"-No. I don't. But… I'm… You remember how I was dopey?" Solomon asked, slightly bashful. Karst giggled.

"Fondly." Karst replied.

"Well… Let's just say that my heart and brain are one now. I can finally think and act in the way that I'm supposed to-"

"-You're supposed to be a Gyarados?" Karst asked, mystified. Solomon rumbled with some new display of emotion.

"I thought that I was a Magikarp. Why is everyone calling me 'Gyarados' all of the sudden?" Solomon asked, voice growing irritated. Karst couldn't stop giggling.

Her Sol was still there.

He was just a little more prone to anger now.

"Because you're a Gyarados now?" Karst teased.

"Okay… I'll run with that. I was a Magikarp, and now I'm a Gyarados. So what is a Gyarados?" Solomon asked, wrestling his anger back under control. Karst coughed on another fit of giggles. The pain was nearly unbearable, and the cold had not left her body, but her little-big Solomon…

...Could always find a way to make her smile, no matter the torment.

"A legend. The Gyaradosia are supposed to be extinct." Karst whispered.

"Extinct?" Solomon asked, his tone rank with alarm and concern.

"They died out thousands of years ago, when they nearly ate the entire world. There is a legend about how the last Gyarados birthed the Magikarps, but… I've never once heard of a legend regarding a Magikarp becoming a Gyarados." Karst murmured.

"...Something to do with 'him,' I guess." The Serpent muttered under his breath.

"-Who?" Karst asked, worried.

"Don't ask. You don't want to know." Solomon grumbled, before the secretive Serpent adjusted his course.

"We're here."

Karst could feel the smooth water beneath her mount give way to the grinding of sand. On either side of the riverbank, two low walls of white stone rose further beyond into jagged peaks.

"Look for a grassy trail leading to the shore. Follow the scent of berries." Karst instructed, and Solomon tasted the wind with his tongue.

"I can taste the berries… and something… -meat." Solomon hissed, his stomach gurgling. Karst swallowed.

The appetite of the Gyarados was the single most predominant trait told of in the legends.

"Don't eat anything here, Sol. The healer doesn't abide hunting in her home." Karst warned.

"I wasn't going to eat them!" Solomon was a decibel away from a roar. Karst was almost thrown from her perch below his crest when Solomon tossed his head in an angry twist.

What had happened to the meek Magikarp that Karst had loved so much?

"-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to get angry, I just-" Solomon quickly regained himself, and the horror in his voice told of his regret and terror.

"-You're a Gyarados, Sol… You'll always be angry…" Karst whispered gently, trying to soothe the soul beneath her.

"-You mean-?"

"-What you're feeling right now? All that rage? That's you. That will always be you. You can't shut it off, Sol… You'll just… have to learn how to deal with it." Karst breathed out hoarsely.

"Sol- I think I'm-" Karst could barely keep her eyes open. The cold had suddenly grown more invasive.

"Hold on, Karst. I'll get you to the healer." That was the shaken voice of Karst's Magikarp, and its sound played Karst's lips into a fond smile.

"If you don't, Sol… I'm going to be very cross with you." Karst teased, praying that these words would not be her last.

…

She plucked a berry free from its stem, and tested the firmness of its flesh.

Too ripe.

Eating the berry with a shrug, the green capped Ralts sought another berry on the bush. The storm was getting worse, and the matron had requested extra ingredients for which to prepare. Many would be injured in the coming floods, and if the healer did not have her wares, then the wounded could not afford her mending.

"There we go." The Ralts cooed, finding a sufficiently firm berry in the lower foliage.

Just right. The matron would be pleased.

The Ralts began to hum as she labored, stripping bushes for their rich bounties. The matron had cultivated this meager brood, and though the bushes were few, their fruit was plentiful.

Thunder sounded above her, and the Ralts staggered beneath the rumble.

She didn't like the thunder. This was only her third storm season.

"I hate this… Why can't it be warm and sunny all year?" The Ralts moaned, lifting a leaf above her head to shield her from the rain.

"I just want to be able to sleep without-"

"-Are you the healer?"

The thunder had a voice.

And a _very_ big shadow.

The Ralts dropped her handful of berries. She could hear a rumbling breathing from above her. Her arms were already trembling when she turned around-

-And stood face to face with the biggest mouth that she had ever seen.

"My friend is injured. She needs help, and quickly. Are you the healer?" The mouth begged, and teeth the size of the Ralts herself were revealed in the motions of the mouth's bony lips.

The Ralts ran.

She didn't know what else to do.

Whatever that blue thing was-

-It was suddenly all around her.

A thud sounded in time with a dropping blue plated wall, and the ground between its coils was swallowed by the tightening ring that imprisoned the Ralts.

"Listen to me! I need to find the healer! Tell me where she is!" The Serpent roared above her, and the Ralts fell to the ground weeping.

The matron had promised that she'd be safe. The matron swore that no harm would come to her if she stayed within the matron's lands-

"I'm sorry, I just… Please. I need help." The voice changed from a roar and into a desperate plea.

"Karst? Can you talk to her? Karst? Come on…"

The terifying Serpent was insane. Speaking to 'Karsts' that weren't there?

Then the Ralts saw the blood stained fur of an Absol beyond the blue crest.

"Karst, talk to me. Come on, Karst! Say something!" The monster was injured. One eye was a bleeding pit, with tender membranes dangling from the grotesque ruin. But the other eye-

-Was crying?

"Do something for her! Please!" The Serpent lowered its massive head, and presented the bloodied Absol to the stunned Ralts.

The Ralts swallowed her shock. She didn't know what beast knelt before her, but every predator in the Core Delta knew that the matron didn't heal Absols.

"I- The healer- I-"

It was too big. The Ralts didn't dare to refuse this beast healing services. She had seen wounded customers grow quite violent when the healer refused them aid. But the crafty matron had always made fools of her belligerent visitors.

Though this Serpent was simply too big to say no to. Too scary to turn away.

"Please… She's going to die…"

The snake was too desperate for the Ralts to close her ears to.

"Can I see her?" The Ralts asked nervously.

"Can you help?" The Serpent asked. The Ralts swallowed.

"I'm not the healer, but I am her student. I might be able to keep her alive until we bring her to the matron." The Ralts said in a shaking voice.

"Then do it. Please." The Serpent found a calm, and the Ralts carefully clambered up the beast's uninjured side. The Serpent rose, and the Ralts gasped in terror as the treeline left her peripheral vision.

"Where do we go from here?" The Serpent asked. The Ralts struggled for her bearings, before finally answering the blue Serpent's question.

"South. Try not to crush the berry bushes…" The Ralts murmured as she turned her attentions to the wounded Absol.

"She's not doing well…" The Ralts warned as her hands felt the Absol's neck for a pulse.

"Can you do anything?" The monster begged. The Ralts was already trying.

"I'm holding her blood loss back, but I can't keep my focus up for very long. You need to hurry. The healer can save her… If the healer will save her…" The Ralts reported.

"She'd better…" The Serpent rumbled. Now the Ralts was very frightened.

This monster sounded dangerous.

…

"Matron!" The Ralts cried out as soon as the Healer's Den came into view. Her matron was in the underloft of the Den-tree, mashing berries into a paste between two stones. Looking up from her duties, the healer was surprised to spy her Ralts riding atop the head of a-

 _-Gyarados?!_

The matron dropped her stone in shock.

They were supposed to be extinct.

"Matron! They're injured!" Her little Ralts was glowing with her species power, clearly attempting to aid some creature on the Gyarados's crown-

-An Absol.

"Healer-" The Gyarados spoke.

 _It spoke?!_

"-My friend needs help! She's dying! Please, will you help her?"

Gyarados.

Friend.

Absol.

Please.

Gyarados?

Friend?

Absol?

 _Please?!_

Was this a Gyarados?

What was going on?

"Matron, she needs help now! I can't keep the blood back-" The piteous moan from her Ralts finally moved the Audino into action.

"Bring her here. Let me see her." The Audino bade. The Gyarados lowered his head, and both the Matron and her Ralts shifted the Absol from the Serpent's crest.

"Gouges and long slashes. Curved entries. An Absol horn made these." The Audino muttered, running her hands across the white fur. Lifting the black face for want of a response, the Audino dropped the Absol in disgust.

"The Alpha's daughter…" The Audino hissed.

"Please… Please, her father almost killed her… She's not like him… Please help her…" The Gyarados was _weeping?_

"What happened to your eye, Gyarados?" The Audino asked coldly, moving away from the Absol.

"Matron!" The Audino stiffened. Her own Ralts sounded horrified.

"I do not offer my services to the Absols. Not even the Alpha, or his daughter. I will mend your eye for a price, but I will not tend the wretched creature that you brought here." The Audino stated in a iron tone.

"Please… You must help her… Please… I need my Karst…"

 _What was this thing?_

This was no Gyarados. It was too feeble. Too weak. Too-

-Kind?

"...What would you offer me, in return for my services for your friend?" The Audino smelled an advantage. Perhaps she could use this Gyarados's desperation for her own ends.

"Anything! Just save her!"

The Audino smiled.

"Very well. Anything it is, then. Child, help me bring the Absol into the Den. I will return to you shortly, Gyarados. I may not be able to restore your sight, but I can at least save you from an infection." Despite the generosity of her offer, no mannerism could conceal the naked intent in the Audino's voice.

"Just wait out here. 'Anything' from a Gyarados is an offer to be thoughtfully considered…" The Audino murmured, returning to her Ralts in order to assist in the relocation of the Absol.

Leaving Solomon alone to fret in the the early morning.

…

"She's asleep. It will be quite some time before she recovers, but your Absol friend will live." The Audino reported upon returning to the one-eyed Gyarados. Solomon's breath was released in a shuddering gale.

"Thank you… Thank you!"

"Your eye. Lower it to me." The Audino ordered, and the Serpent placed its head before her.

"-It's too late to restore your sight. As I feared, your optic nerve has already died." The Audino clucked as she inspected the wound.

"Another Absol horn made this, didn't it?" The Audino asked. Solomon nodded.

"A big horn too… Well, the Alpha of the Absols knows the legends. You're lucky that he didn't kill you with this blow. The angle was off. He struck your ridge when he was aiming for your optic foramen. It would have opened a hole directly into your cerebral cavity." The Audino murmured.

"Is she okay?" The Gyarados asked. The Audino sighed.

"How is it that a Gyarados has reappeared in the Core Delta after all of these years free of their monstrous hunger? And how is it that this Gyarados came to be friends with an Absol?" The Audino asked.

"Can we save the small talk for later? How is Karst?" The Gyarados pressed, his voice hinting at agitation.

"Easy now, I'm trying to reconnect your corona tissues. It may not be pretty, but if I can piece the membranes back together… You'll at least have an eye in your socket, even if it is a blind one…" The Audino would not be so easily dissuaded. She was matron here, and not even a Gyarados was going to defy her.

"She's fine, as I told you. Her rear left leg has a shattered femur, and the gouge on her flank has fractured ribs, but… Apart from her blood loss, she was in no immediate danger." The Audino relented.

"Does this hurt?" The matron asked, pulling two torn fibers together.

"Yes." Grumbled the Gyarados.

"Good. Then the nerves are still alive. We may be able to patch this ruin yet." Blood caked the Audino's arms and chest, but despite her herbivore diet, the gore did not sicken her.

She had handled oceans of blood in her time.

"Who are you?" The Gyarados asked. The Audino smirked.

"I am the healer. I have lived within the Core Delta for nigh on a millenia. Only a handful of the Ninetails are as old as I am." The Healer stated smugly.

"A millenia?!" The Gyarados sounded shocked.

"New to the Core Delta?" The Audino laughed, leaning inside the Gyarados's socket.

"I haven't been here for very long." The Gyarados replied.

"Where did you come from?" The Audino asked, curious. She felt the beast roll beneath her with a swallow.

"I still don't remember…" That drew a pause from the healer's ministrations.

"Amnesia? Interesting…" The Audino's voice echoed slightly in the Gyarados's skull.

"-What a mess. Those Absol horns are so vile…" The Audino grumbled, snipping a ragged fiber with her teeth.

The Gyarados rumbled and tensed.

"Take it easy… I'm almost done." The Audino chided, smiling to herself.

This Gyarados had an unusually high pain threshold for its species. The legends stated that spilling one's blood was akin to inviting catastrophe, but this Gyarados seemed to restrain itself against such violent passions.

"I'd like to know the story, if you wouldn't mind. It's not everyday that a Gyarados wanders into my home with a wounded Absol on its head." The Audino pushed.

"I'm sorry, but I'm not comfortable discussing that with strangers." The Gyarados replied. The Audino chuckled.

"Strangers? My dear Gyarados… I am no stranger. I am your master, and your master wants to hear your story." The Audino swooned with laughter.

"Excuse me?" The Gyarados rumbled.

"Well… temporary master. You must pay for my services, as all others must do. Upon fulfillment of your debt, I will release you and your Absol companion… You did say 'anything,' right?" The Audino stroked a raw nerve with her fingertip, and the Gyarados hissed a warning.

"I will pay my debt." The Gyarados rumbled.

"Good. Good for you. Better for your friend." The Audino smirked.

"So will you tell your master your story?" The Audino mocked.

"Amnesia. I don't remember." The Gyarados grumbled. The Audino snorted.

"Right. Clever fish…" The Audino finished cleaning the wound.

"Okay. Close your other eye, and relax. This will feel… weird." The Audino summoned up her focus, while the Gyarados steadied himself for whatever lay ahead. Pouring her focus into the wound, the Audino began to forcibly incite cellular division within the ruined tissues of the Gyarados's socket. The membranes began to connect, before both time and necrosis could forever separated them. She continued emptying her focus into the restored eye, until the optical structure possessed foundation enough to hold itself together.

"As I said… Blind." The Audino fell back with a heavy sigh.

"It's too bad really. That eye could have come in handy…" The Audino sat her bloodied figure down against the earth.

"How did you-" The Gyarados began in a startled breath.

"-I'm the healer, remember?" The Audino answered smugly.

"I can't heal it all the way. It can be dangerous if the tissues reconnect improperly. A natural pace grants me the time to inspect and direct. That, and I'm afraid that I can't just spend myself on you alone. Your friend has already consumed a vast portion of my reserves, and there are others who will come here, seeking my services. Sleep out here, and do not worry about your Absol friend. She is in good hands. The little one is watching over her now." The Audino made to leave, seemingly exhausted.

"Thank you." Solomon murmured. The Audino froze.

What manner of Gyarados was this thing?

"Don't thank me yet. I still expect more than gratitude for my services." The Audino warned.

Solomon sighed softly, and coiled up beneath the falling rain, watching the healer return to her treeborn den.

"Go to sleep, Gyarados, or I'll have the little one put you to sleep as well." The healer chided, disappearing into the thatched loft of her Den.

"Thank you…" Solomon whispered, before sleep claimed his weary form.

…

 _White. White legs. Gold. Gold Cage. Red. Red eyes. And me. Me standing before him._

 _I am different now. Stronger than I was, and though my mind and heart are reunited as one, I am as lost as I have ever been._

 _I made the choice. It's what he tells me. He sounds pleased, though cautious. Respectful? Does he fear me?_

 _He laughs, as my thoughts are known to him._

 _No. He does not fear me. But he does not wish to anger me._

 _My eye. Was it the sacrifice? Was it the cost of my choice? He sighs, and lowers his red eyes._

 _Yes, he tells me. But my eye was but one piece of the sacrifice. He tells me that_ _I gave up something else in my choice._

 _For her, it is worth it. That is what I say. He looks at me oddly. How far will I go for her? He asks me._

 _As far as is necessary._

 _He shakes his head. Is he disappointed? No._

 _He is sorrowful. His head descends, and the vacant look crosses his face again.  
_

 _He tells me that it is a mistake, to act so blindly on the behalf of only one. He tells me that I will need to consider others, and how my actions perpetrated for her could affect them._

 _He tells me to be mindful, or else I shall become like him…_

 _Who are you? I ask, and the God looks up in distress._

 _I grow cold. I know that look._

 _That is my look..._

 _He can't remember who he is…_

 _I passed the trial, he murmurs, though not as he intended._

 _Now I grow angry. Was I to simply let her die?_

 _He chuckles briefly at my question. He tells me that it is not a bad thing for me to have succeeded where he has failed._

 _What am I doing? What is my purpose here? Why does a God need me? He swallows, and then warns me against the knowing portents ahead of my time._

 _I'm growing furious. I want to destroy-_

 _He answers me suddenly._

 _He is dying, and he needs me to save his world before he passes._

 _The rage ebbs. God is dying?_

 _He ignores my question. He asks me about the rage._

 _I am cold again. Numb.  
_

 _I know that this anger was never a part of who I was._

 _No, he tells me. I was not a destroyer. But I am now._

 _A destroyer? Am I not his savoir? His chosen sacrifice?_

 _...Oh no…_

 _He wouldn't-_

 _He is crying again. Am I to destroy this world? Is that what he intends?!_

 _He speaks meekly, stating that there are three outcomes to the final trial. The final trial that first began when he brought me here. One of them saves the world. One of them leaves it to die. And the other…_

 _The other has me eating him, and using his power to destroy this world._

 _Too much for now, he tells me. I know too much. He will shelter me from the knowledge, but I must be ever mindful. Every action that I take has consequences beyond mundane sight. He tells me to return to her, and cherish what I have._

 _For no matter what ending comes…_

 _A sacrifice must be made._


	8. Chapter VIII: To What End?

.

 **.**

 **V**

 **...**

 **-A-**

 **..v..**

 **Chapter VIII: To What End?**

A shudder wracked her frame. She was cold. She felt so stiff. Was that her breath, torturing the flesh of her throat?

 _Am I alive?_

Something burrowed into her side. Something warm and soft.

 _Sol?_

She struggled to open her feeble eyelids. Fought her non compliant body for leverage.

Was that her fish? Was she dead? Where they both together in this darkness?

"Sol?" Karst's cracking voice called out.

The warmth at her flank disappeared.

"Sol? Come back… Please Sol... don't leave me..." Karst moaned.

"Sol-?"

"Here. Drink this." A child's soft voice bade.

Water touched Karst's nose, and reflex animated her stiff figure in recoil.

"You need to drink. You lost a lot of blood. Please. Drink." The soft voice of the child pleaded, and cool water found its way beneath Karst's mouth again.

 _I'm alive?_

The water burned as it crossed Karst's parched mouth and dry throat; a soothing pain. A living agony.

"Slowly. There's plenty more. Don't make yourself sick by drowning your stomach." The child's voice murmured as Karst resurfaced for want of breath.

"Sol? Where is he?" Karst pleaded. She still couldn't open her eyes.

"Hold on. Let me clean your face." The child whispered, and a damp hand bore more water to Karst's eyes, softening the mucus that had gummed her eyelashes together.

"You had a reaction to one of the poultices. The medicine still did its job, but we just broke the fever an hour ago. The matron didn't know if you were going to make it, after having lost so much blood." The child's voice was growing stronger.

"The healer?" Karst asked in a shaking breath.

Solomon had done it. Solomon had saved her.

"The matron could only quench the bleeding. Your body lacked the resources to fight off infections, so our foci were unusable after the mending. The poultice should waylay any bacterial infections, but... Your ribs and femur are still broken, so we have set them in splints. You need to gather your strength before we attempt to mend your bones." The child informed Karst of her condition, while administering to the Absol's eyes.

"Can you open them yet?" The child asked. Karst forced her eyelids to part, tearing her lashes out of the follicles as she did so.

A green cap stood before her face. A tiny green cap.

"Are you a Ralts?" Karst murmured. White hands raised a concave leaf up to Karst's mouth, and offered the Absol more water.

"Yes. I am the matron's pupil." The Ralts murmured.

"A Ralts? What are you doing outside of the Rose Hills? The Grave Stretch doesn't abide by your tribe's-"

"The matron found me on the banks of the Song river two flood seasons ago. I was only an infant. The matron saved me, and raised me to be her pupil. I don't know anything about the Rose Hills, or my tribe." The Ralts whispered. Karst swallowed.

"Where is Sol?" Karst asked. The Ralts looked up at her in confusion.

"Do you mean the Gyarados?"

"Yeah. His name is Solomon." Karst replied. That Ralts tilted her head, as though confused.

"The Gyarados called you Karst... Do you both have names?" The Ralts asked.

"Yeah, he named me Karst. Now where is Sol?" The water was strengthening Karst. Already her breath was returning to a normal wind.

"The matron sent the Gyarados away-"

"-What?!" Karst asked, suddenly frantic. The Ralts backed up as fast as she could.

This was an Absol.

A predator.

And an anxious predator was a dangerous custom.

"-He'll be back! The matron sent him off into the river. He needs to rehydrate. And the matron didn't want a Gyarados frightening off the wounded." The Ralts quickly explained. Karst began to settle down at once, sharp breaths taken to steady her jarred nerves.

"So he's okay?" Karst asked softly.

"The matron healed his eye, but he cannot see out of it. Other than that, he's a perfectly healthy Gyarados. According to the matron." The Ralts said, moving cautiously towards the Absol.

"Will… Will I be able to speak with the healer?" Karst asked fearfully.

The Ralts swallowed.

"The matron has entered an arrangement with the Gyarados. You will be cared for, but only if the Gyarados holds true to his debt." The Ralts attempted to divert the question, but the weary Absol was not so easily dissuaded.

"But can I talk to her?" Karst pressed.

The Ralts froze.

"I… I don't know." The Ralts reluctantly answered.

Karst curled in on herself, and an air of misery overcame her countenance.

The Ralts was completely flabbergasted.

This was an Absol.

What was it doing, softly weeping in the matron's den?

Absols didn't cry.

Absols only killed.

"Are you… Are you really the Alpha's daughter?" The Ralts asked. A sudden clenching of the Absol's extremities told of some aching wound deeper than the flesh.

"I was." I Absol answered coldly.

 _Was?_

"I… I've never met an Absol before. Have you ever met a Ralts?" The Ralts asked.

The Absol closed her eyes, and tightened in upon herself.

"...You don't want to know." Karst whimpered.

Now the Ralts was scared.

She understood the subtle connotations of the Absol's admission.

"...You've killed Ralts before, haven't you?" The Ralts asked in a frail voice.

The Absol let loose a pained moan, and began to weep with renewed vigor. Despite this gruesome and incriminating portent, despite the obvious revelation…

...The Ralts could not suppress a welling of pity for the broken soul before her.

"Sol… I just want Sol…" Karst moaned through the tears.

He had done this to her. Solomon had made her feel guilt. Solomon had made her question the truth.

And her tormentor was the only creature who could bring Karst comfort.

"Is 'it' awake yet?" A weary voice asked.

"Matron! I-"

"Go find the Gyarados, little one. Tell him that he can return to the den." A blood caked Audino uttered in a tired voice. The Ralts rushed for the exit of the den without another word.

The Audino washed the blood from her arms and chest, before shaking her creme and pink fur free of the clinging droplets. Inhaling deeply, drawing a steeling breath; The Audino turned at last to the wounded Absol.

"Healer I-" Karst was interrupted by a pair of creme hands upon either side of her brow. The Audino peered into one eye intently, before shifting focus to the other. A pair of fingers lingered on Karst's throat, measuring the pulse beneath the skin. Then a hand found its way onto Karst nose, and gauged the temperature of her skin.

All this was done beneath a heavy silence. All was meted to completion beneath the severe gaze of the Audino.

"Healer, I-"

The Audino struck suddenly, a balled fist connecting with Karst's bruised ribs. The Absol shrieked and writhed, while the Audino panted furiously above her.

"Do not… Speak. To me." The Audino hissed. The Absol's eyes closed, and a fresh set of tears began to fall. The Audino gloated over her oppressor's agony, but only for a second.

It wasn't a bodily pain that filled the corners of those eyes. It wasn't submission to a greater foe that curled the Absol into itself. There was something else that was shaping this Absol into a miserable creature. Another motive, beyond mere survival, that suffered such indignities upon a predator's form.

The matron filled another leaf with water from the den's cistern, and placed it beneath the Absol's wilting chin.

"If you waste such precious fluids on tears, you will need to drink even more. Now makes yourself presentable. The Gyarados will want to see that my bargaining chip is still alive." The Audino spat, before making her shaken way to leave the den.

"...I'm sorry…" The Audino froze before the exit.

No Absol had ever uttered those words.

"Don't. Speak. To me." The Audino hissed, shaking with a tremor of rage. Before the Absol's moans grated upon her ears any further, the Audino exited the den, and made to await the return of the Serpent.

…

"So, how does the evening greet you, Gyarados?" The Audino simpered upon sight of the monster's slithering figure.

"Well enough. Now where is Karst?" Solomon wrestled his impatience into submission. The rage fed from such unstable emotions.

"Where is my pupil?" The Audino asked, her voice rank with suspicion.

Her Ralts had not returned with Serpent-

"I'm up here, matron!" A giggle called out from behind the Gyarados's crest. The matron's heart leapt into her throat when her Ralts left the cover of the blue crest, and waved down to the Audino.

Before the matron could even draw breath to berate the monstrous Serpent and her reckless pupil, the Gyarados lowered his head and returned the gleeful Ralts back onto solid land.

"Everything looks so small from up there! Even the air tastes different!" The Ralts giggled, rushing over to embrace her matron. The matron shoved her pupil behind her protectively, and stood as a shield between her Ralts and the Gyarados.

"What were you trying to do with my pupil?" The Audino glared up at the Blue Serpent.

"Matron, I-!"

"The little one requested a ride. I saw no harm in granting one." The Gyarados answered calmly. The Audino rounded on her pupil.

"I told you to fetch the Gyarados, and return immediately. Not to play dangerous games with a monster!" The Audino's open palm connected with her pupil's startled face in a loud crack.

"Healer!" The Gyarados rumbled, and the lonely red eye dilated with the breath of a roar.

The entire glade froze stiff in dread, while the Gyarados struggled against the rage.

"...Look at you. You can barely keep a seal on it." The Audino hissed in disgust when the worst had passed.

"I'm trying…" The Gyarados choked, a new bout of fury mounting to contest the Audino's stinging accusation.

"...Go into the den, little one. Help the Absol out into the glade." The Audino whispered. The stunned Ralts did as she was bade.

"Why do you repress the anger, Gyarados?" The Audino asked calmly.

"Because I must!" The snake growled, growing even more agitated. The Audino wisely chose to end the inquiry. Regardless of its reasons, the Gyarados had chosen to combat its nature, not to forfeit to it.

"Easy. Your friend will be out soon. She is awake, and taking fluids. She can speak with you now." The Audino chided.

The effects of that reassurance was revealed instantaneously.

The Gyarados found a calm of which to soothe the angry beast.

The Audino could only stare at this abomination in bewilderment.

 _What was this thing?_

"Sol?" The Gyarados's gaze left the ground, and a light of hope shown within the red eye.

"Karst!" The Serpent rent the soil with a frenzied slither, desperate to be reunited with his wounded friend.

The Absol staggered out of the den, her own haste known in her clumsy three-legged limp. Karst had barely left the shadow of the dentree, before the Serpent's coils were all around her.

"Are you okay?" The shaken voice of Solomon whimpered, as his massive head lowered into the earthen patch between his ring of coils. Karst fell against his armored mail, and wiped her tears of relief into his side.

Karst was giggling again. Giggling in joy and disbelief. Giggling in that crazy and inappropriate voice.

"Sol… I- I-"

"Shh… It's okay, Karst. It's okay. I'm here. I'm here for you." The bony lips of the Gyarados gently bumped the Absol's head, bringing another storm of gleeful giggles from Karst's mouth.

"My goofy fish." Karst coughed, as a surge of pain in her ribs overwhelmed the gale of laughter.

"Are you-?" Solomon's coils tightened, and his huge head drew closer in concern.

"I'm fine, Sol. I'm fine. I'm just feeling… a little tender." Karst wheezed when she could draw breath. Solomon swallowed thunderously above her, and the Serpent loosened his azure walls, before laying his head down beside Karst.

"You made it, Karst. Thank you…" Solomon nuzzled Karst's tiny head with his lower jaw.

"Take it easy, big guy! Your kisses hit like rocks now!" Karst teased after a particularly passionate nuzzle just about crushed her head between Solomon's jaw and armored plate.

Solomon fell away, his bashful look bringing another round of painful giggles out from the wounded Absol.

"Stop being so cute. It hurts me, Sol. Even worse then it did before…" Karst coughed on another torn breath of laughter.

A green cap rushed forth, and a small pink light formed at Karst's flank. The Absol's breathing eased, and the gleeful white huntress relaxed.

"While I'm _glad_ that your reunion has brought a level of peace to you both…" The Audino's voice interrupted the exchange. The Ralts ceased expending her restorative foci on the Absol's wounds, and turned to face the healer along with the two predators.

"...There is still the matter of my pay." The Audino let that reminder hang like a storm cloud above the glade.

"What would you ask of me?" Solomon didn't even hesitate to respond. The Audino smiled.

"Your friend will require constant support in the months to come, while we await for her bones to heal-"

"-I thought that you could mend broken bones?" The Gyarados growled. The Audino smirked.

"I can. But only if I want to."

A warning rumble sounded from the Gyarados's throat.

"Do not attempt to coerce me, monster. I need a guarantee of your loyalty. I cannot accept your word alone. I do this for my own safety." The Audino replied to Solomon's threat.

"And meanwhile, you extend the date of service until I heal?" Karst spoke from beneath Solomon's jaw.

"After what your kind did to my family? I'm well within my rights to kill you, Absol…" The Audino hissed.

Too far.

Too far for the Gyarados to tolerate.

A full fledged roar accompanied the Serpent's sudden rise, and a lashing tail split open the earth.

"Sol!" Karst cried out in horror, just as the beast made ready to lunge at the frozen Audino.

A name.

Solomon remembered his name.

And he used that name to battle the murderous monster within him.

Solomon fell back, panting and twitching as the surge of adrenaline and dopamine burned in futility against the passive entity graced with a name. A ragged voice, born from the Serpent, murmured curses and berated himself in a hissing tongue.

But even with his return to stability, Solomon would not offer an apology to the shaken Audino.

There were limits that were dangerous to cross, even among the kind hearted.

"Sol… She's right. The healer… has shown us a great kindness." Karst whispered to the hulking beast around her, while Solomon paused to draw a fit of calming breaths.

"Karst-"

"The Absols killed her family, Sol. Since then, the Healer has refused to offer any aid to the Absols. She provided me with her craft. I can believe that it was quite a struggle for her, saving a life that killed her kin." Karst withered in on herself with the guilt. Solomon curled protectively around her, entrapping both Karst and the stunned Ralts within his coils.

"I will pay my debt. But you will not hurt my Karst." Solomon swore in a oath bound voice, turning once more to the startled Audino.

 _This was not a Gyarados._

 _This was not an Absol._

 _What were these two creatures?_

"...Very well. I will _refrain_ from bringing up our shared history in the future-" The Audino stopped herself, attempting to free her voice of the accusing tone before continuing.

"-But now onto the meat of the matter. My price." The healer stated in an iron tone.

"Name it." Solomon demanded. The Audino's fists clenched, and a shudder loosened her shoulders.

" _I want my home back."_ The Audino growled. Solomon's brow furrowed, curious as to the context of this request. Karst made a startled sound beneath him.

"You can't be serious! If you try-"

"The _Gyarados_ will be the one to take it back. Not me. And if the rumors that today's customers have enlightened me to are true… Then the Absols would not dare attempt to reclaim any territory lost to the Serpent." The Audino stated in a cold voice.

"Explain to me what exactly is going on. I don't understand what either of you are-"

"-She wants you to go to war with the Mightyena!" Karst shouted.

" _-I want my home back!"_ The Audino hissed.

Solomon froze.

War?

No...

Solomon would not fight a war.

"I don't kill." Solomon growled to the Audino.

That outrageous declaration silenced the glade.

"...What do you mean? _You don't kill?_ " The Audino asked, her voice shaking. Even Karst was looking up at Solomon in wonder.

"I don't kill." Solomon repeated himself, his tone growing annoyed.

The Audino laughed.

"No. You do kill. You are the _Predator Supreme_. The Unstoppable End. The World-Killer. You are Gyarados, and to be a Gyarados is to be the ultimate reaper of life..." The Audino's voice sounded amused, though testy. Already her fickle customer was attempting to elude his debt-

"I am Solomon. _Not Gyarados._ " The Serpent replied in a harsh tone.

The Audino could only stare at him in disbelief.

He was serious…

"Sol? You… You are a Gyarados. A name can't change that. And a Gyarados… needs to eat. You can't live off of shrubs and fruit. A Gyarados eats meat-" Karst began.

"I don't eat anything with a _voice-_ " Solomon interrupted.

"-Then you're already dead. You won't even make it to your first molt. You'll never even grow your sails. You'll never fly if you don't feed yourself." The Audino sounded disappointed. Solomon froze up.

"What?" Solomon asked, bewildered.

"You're a carnivore. You sustain yourself off of meat. If you don't eat meat-"

"No. _Fly._ You said that I could _fly?_ " Solomon's voice sounded incredulous.

Karst snorted beneath him.

"You don't even know what a Gyarados is, do you Sol?" Karst chuckled sadly beneath him.

Her sweet fish.

Her innocent, naive little Sol.

Her poor, tragic friend…

"You will need to eat, Sol. I don't care if I have to hunt to feed you. But you will live." Karst spoke softly from beneath him.

She meant it.

Karst would hunt day and night to feed her Sol.

Just to save his innocence from his own hunger.

"Karst, I can't-" Desperation sounded in Solomon's voice, a tone reminiscent of a terrified Magikarp that Karst had known not all that long ago.

" _What are you?_ " The healer asked in disbelief.

"-He is Solomon. He is the single most unique creature that I have ever known." Karst answered for her lost friend. Solomon was terrified silent. Solomon was beginning to understand.

He was a monster with a kind heart.

A killer with a conscious.

A loving child with a murderer's calling.

"I can't believe this. A predator- _A Gyarados that will not kill?_ What madness conceived you, Serpent?" The Audino spat.

"...It wasn't madness, matron…" The Ralts murmured in awe.

The little one drew every eye from the glade onto her inconspicuous person. The Ralts barely noticed any of them.

She could only meet the fearful gaze of the Gyarados with a soft smile.

"...It was compassion." The Ralts murmured, spreading her arms wide to the monster.

The matron's heart once more invaded her throat, as the trembling snake lowered its gasping mouth down towards her fearless pupil.

"Little one!" The Audino rushed forth to save her Ralts from those awful teeth, but the new profane scene unfolding before her chilled the Audino to the core.

The Gyarados's snout was being held in the arms of her Ralts.

And the closed eyes of the Serpent were filling with tears.

"... _Solomon_ …"

…

 _I call for him. I plead for him to appear. I need him. I need his guidance._

 _Bring me your white hands! Show me your red eyes! I need you to help me!_

 _Please… Please help me…_

 _Please take this fate from my hands…_

 _Please free me from this truth…_

 _Please…_

 _White. White legs. Gold. A gold cage. Red. His red eyes._

 _Tears._

 _Our tears._

 _He comes to me in sorrow. He kneels before me in guilt. He cannot speak. He cannot laugh._

 _He has no comfort to offer me._

 _Why?_

 _The feeble question._

 _The unanswerable odyssey._

 _Why?_

 _Why has this been done to me?_

 _He speaks now._

 _He tells me of a dying world-_

 _My roar drowns out his words. I've heard this before! This is not an answer!_

 _It's a charade! It's an excuse!_

 _Why have you made me into a monster!?_

 _God is weeping. He cannot look at me. He can barely answer me._

 _This world is one of many. Many that he has designed. This world was made separate. Designed to be free of his other worlds' influences._

 _It is a savage world. A cruel world. A free world._

 _His favorite world._

 _A world of the Strong and the Weak._

 _A law that governs the Mighty and the Meek._

 _A balance that preserves these two constants in the hopes of eternity._

 _He made me into a monster, so that I would be strong in this world._

 _But he gave this monster a meek heart, so that it would appreciate the balance of this world._

 _Must I kill to live?_

 _He answers me thus, Yes._

 _Then I have no want to live._

 _He shakes his white head, and calms himself._

 _I must live. The sacrifices of the few outweigh the needs of the many._

 _I laugh. It is not a joyous laugh. It is not a sad laugh._

 _It is a mocking laugh. It is a bitter laugh._

 _And it is defiant in its utterance._

 _What would God know of sacrifices?_

 _He swallows, and lifts himself up upon his white legs._

 _He turns away from me, and walks back into the cloud of dreams._

 _I repeat my question._

 _What would God know of sacrifices?_

 _He pauses at the threshold of waking and dreaming._

 _Thousands of voices answer me. Thousands of tongues speak in thousands of languages. All speaking. All speaking to me.  
_

 _An answer._

 _He knows what sacrifice is._

 _He knows what sacrifice is, because at one point…_

 _...He was me._


	9. Chapter IX: For Love of Empathy

.

 **.**

 **V**

 **...**

 **-A-**

 **..v..**

 **Chapter IX: For Love of Empathy**

The Healer scrubbed the blood from her paws again. The Absols and their allies had successfully claimed the White Fault for another season. The desperate herds were now trapped within the Core Delta for want of water and green food.

The Absols had filled their lands with meat.

Lands shaped and charted by the hunters.

Lands that favored the predator and subjugated the prey.

Another season of death had come to the Core Delta.

Another season of blood for the Healer to quench.

The Audino was amazed that the blood still washed from her fur. After nine hundred seasons of wading through blood, the Audino almost felt as if the ruddy hue better suited her coloration than those of her species's natural shades; and it almost seemed fitting that the blood's coppery scent should have oozed from her pores like musk.

She was the matron of blood; a purveyor in the coinage of life.

And for those who sought the matron's coin…

...They must meet that blood with equity.

Today's bounty was piled in the den; berries from distant soils, herbs and chalk from far off fields, folds of silk and pleasant smelling excretions, tender mushrooms and pretty scales, rare stones and hollowed nuts brimming with concentrated venoms…

...And half of a young Bouffalant, freshly killed by the Houndooms this morning.

'It' staggered into the central den, gasping on a painful breath.

"Take that filth away from me. I don't want to watch you eat." The Healer hissed, as the wounded Absol discreetly examined the Bouffalant's mutilated corpse.

"It's been tanned... The Houndooms?" Karst dared ask.

"One of their Routers was trampled by your meal's mother. I had half a mind to turn them away, but as of today… They were the only predators that sought my aid. And I cannot rightly request an offering of flesh from a Bibarel, now can I?" The Audino growled.

"Do they know that I'm here?" Karst asked in a fearful voice. The Audino snorted.

"You reek of a Lilligant. Not even I can smell an Absol from this distance. Fortunately for you, the herds have been rather greedy in their initial grazing. The wounded Lilligants have been most generous with their nectar. But even so... You are quite expensive to tend and sequester." The Audino spat.

Karst sniffed about the corpse, before choking on a shudder.

"...I hate the Houndooms…" Karst retched.

"Yes, well the Absols hate everything. Or rather, they just enjoy abusing everything. So you hate the Houndooms? How very _Absol_ of you. Your father must be so proud."

The Audino shook the water from her paws, just as a familiar sound reached her ears. A sob, a whimper, and a gagging.

"Would you cry somewhere else? I'm fed up with listening to your tears-" The Audino rounded on the Absol, but the Healer halted her lashing words on sight of the weeping creature.

Karst was curled into a ball while she wept; this was not unusual for the grieving Absol.

But by shape of her balled figure, and by the parts that Karst favored protecting, a new story was told to the Audino's wisened eyes.

Not all deep wounds bleed.

Not every rend presented its scabs overtly.

And the Healer had seen countless wounds such as these before.

"...Stop your crying and feed yourself. I can't have two predators starving themselves at my expense." Despite the harsh intent of her words, the Healer heard her own voice growing softer when she spoke to the Absol.

The Audino had heard whispers of the Alpha Absol's Daughter. Rumors pertaining to this Absol's exile.

But they were always accompanied by rumors of the Gyarados, and the exiled Absol's little known story paled in relevance when compared to a Legend's rebirth.

The Core Delta was wild with the tale; A lone Gyarados defeating the entire Absol Pack? The Packmaster of the Grave Stretch fleeing before a Primordial Serpent?

A new Legend was being weaved out of the fresh rumors and the ancient myths; A tale foretelling the second coming of the world's end.

Though few doubted the story, no one knew where the Gyarados was. Some believed that after having been wounded, the Gyarados had returned to the ocean in order to heal; while others believed that the Gyarados was in the sky, following every living movement and stalking all life as its prey.

The truth would have surprised the entirety of the Core Delta. The Gyarados was still within the Grave Stretch, hiding itself in an empty river.

Hiding itself from the hunger.

"Rise, Absol. You need to eat. Solomon is already near breaking. Do not worry him anymore than is necessary in his self-imposed trial." The Audino sighed, and pulled the crying Absol off of the den floor.

"-When will he come back?" Karst begged in that desperate voice. The Audino's face clouded.

"You should hope that he doesn't. If the Gyarados returns soon, it will be to fill his belly. Both you and I will be nothing more than meat in the Serpent's starving eye. But if he returns later… Well, if he returns at all… You will have a very wounded heart to console." The Audino placed her shoulder behind Karst's head, supporting the broken Absol as Karst acknowledged the cruel truth.

"...My goofy fish…" Karst sobbed, kneeling on the floor to grieve for her friend.

The Gyarados would not eat.

Even now, the monster starved itself in solitude, far from anything it loved.

Whether Solomon truly wanted to die or if he still denied the truth, the Healer did not know. But Solomon's reckless means had endangered the entire Core Delta with their inescapable ends.

Despite Solomon's conviction, he could not defeat his nature.

And every passing day that wasted Solomon with hunger, tortured the Gyarados with the pains of an empty stomach.

It was futile. If Solomon was seeking to protect them, he was going about it the wrong way. When his last shred of resolve was consumed by the Serpent's hunger, Solomon would cease to be.

And the Savage Destroyer would rise to sate the need.

"We need to get him to eat, before the hunger drives him mad..." The Audino hissed.

"How? You heard what he said. He won't kill... My stupid little Sol…" Karst whimpered.

"He has to eat, and by his own volition! If the monster fills his gut, that fragile heart will be forever scarred. I have little doubt that your friend would find a way to kill himself should the monster ever dictate his indulgences. The fool…"

"I need to talk to him! Can you take me-"

"-No, I can't. I have too many treasures here. I cannot leave the den, lest my absences tempts the unscrupulous into my abode. And such a journey would reveal you and your location to the entire Grave Stretch. If you truly wish to continue eluding your father, then you must stay here." The Audino returned to the pile of offerings, and began to sort the perishable materials from the rest.

"We need to think of something. Solomon is a threat now. The only way that we can prevent an absolute disaster from transpiring is by making the stupid fish eat. I've been concocting a solution, and I have a solid foundation... But one article still escapes me." The Audino muttered. Karst ceased her weeping, and harkened her ears to the Healer's pensive voice.

"Do you really think that we can-?" Karst began, but the Healer cut her off with a cold tone.

"-Certain nutriments found in meat can be substituted with the same nutrients derived from vegetation. The inceptive quandary is metabolism. Gyaradosia cannot digest vegetation. They lack the necessary enzymes and bacteria to break down plant matter. But even then, we can prepare the vegetation in such a way that even a Gyarados's stomach can metabolise it. We just have to break down the plant fibers before Solomon eats them. All that process requires is heat." The Audino lifted a mushroom from the pile, and nibbled upon the brown cap. Karst stared at the Healer in disbelief.

Was a solution to save Solomon truly tangible?

"I believe that Solomon could subsist off of a carefully selected diet of boiled vegetation, but there is still one major flaw." The Audino finished her mushroom, and chased it down with some fresh rainwater from the den's cistern.

"Protein. The Gyarados needs protein, and vast quantities of it. The vegetation that we have access to does not provide anywhere near a sufficient amount of protein that can be metabolised by a Gyarados's digestive system." The Audino muttered. Karst swallowed.

"-Where can we get the protein from?" Karst softly asked. The Audino's shoulders rocked with a deprecating laugh.

"You're asking me, Absol? Meat, of course." The Audino sneered.

"You heard Solomon! You heard what he said! He won't eat anything with a voice-"

"Yes. With a voice. Which practically eliminates every viable source of protein. So I've been thinking… Not that I like considering this recourse, but if it saves lives…" The Audino shook her head with a sigh.

"-The Diglett. They can't speak until they mature into the Dugtrio. Well, the Diglett can speak, but only in garbled nonsense. They need all three brains of the Dugtrio working in tangent before they can say anything intelligent." The Audino muttered. Karst swallowed.

"Solomon would figure it out, and he's too stupid to eat something with the potential to have a voice. And I won't lie to him. I can't lie to him…" Karst murmured. The Audino raised her hands in exasperation.

"I can't think of another protein source! Every living thing has a voice!" The Audino roared. Karst froze when old line from a forgotten law echoed in the Audino's assertion.

 _Every living thing has a voice…_

"What about… The Watchers?" Karst whispered. The Audino exploded with laughter.

"That's the stupidest-!" The Healer locked up when the revelation dawned on her.

"-That… might work…"

"They're small, but plentiful. I've eaten them as snacks before. They're actually pretty tasty." Karst added. The Audino buried her eyes in a palm.

"Eating the sacred Watchers of the Hunt… The Arcanines would have your head..." The Audino chuckled.

"Well, the Watchers don't have voices-" Karst started.

"According to the legends, they _do-_ "

"-Well, I've never heard one speak. Or scream as I tore its wings off." Karst interrupted the Healer's recital on the Arcanines' dogma. But a new sound came forth from the Audino's mouth. An uncommon sound for the Audino to utter.

The Healer couldn't stop laughing.

"You're an Absol, through and through…" The Audino tensed when the connotations of her own words struck her. Karst withered in upon herself.

It was an abnormal behavior for an Absol. At first, the Healer couldn't even conceive of it. It took the Audino a while to recognise it. But after caring for the wounded Karst for the past several days, the Audino was now convinced of it.

Guilt. Remorse.

Shame.

The Absol before the Healer was unlike any other Absol alive.

This Absol wanted to repent for its violent nature.

"Well, your suggestion pieces the puzzle whole. I actually have a means of collecting the Watchers into a concentrated area… Where is my pupil?" The Audino asked in a sly tone. Karst tilted her head.

"I thought that the Ralts was with you?" Karst stated quizzically. The Audino faltered. Karst sniffed at the air.

"She's not in the den…" Karst murmured, when the Ralts's scent proved faint.

"The little brat!" The Audino screamed, hurrying for the exit in a panic.

…

She approached the river cautiously. Though she was still within the matron's lands, she knew that what she was attempting was dangerous.

But she had to try.

She wanted him to live.

"Solomon?" The Ralts's worried voice called out across the river, but nothing answered her.

"Solomon, are you still here?" The Ralts asked the water fearfully.

Still nothing rose from the depths.

"Solomon, please… I want to talk to you…" The Ralts begged, splashing the water at the bank with a stick.

The silence stretched on into an eternity, leaving the Ralts to fidget nervously.

Had he left the matron's lands?

Had he finally given up all hope?

Would that frightened heart lose itself in the hunger?

...Had he forgotten his own name?

"Solomon…" The Ralts fought back her tears. It wasn't fair. He didn't deserve to suffer like this. He wasn't the monster that the matron feared. He wasn't-

-The water beyond the bank began to swell, and a haggard Serpent finally heeded her plea.

"Little one…" Solomon's broken voice greeted her. She could feel his torment through the unconscious rapport that linked her emotions with others. Solomon was still there. Solomon was still aching with the hunger. Solomon was still shaking with the fear. Solomon was still fighting the monster within him.

"I… I wanted to see you…" The Ralts whispered to the one-eyed Serpent. Solomon let his breath out in trembling sigh.

"I told you not to come here, child. I don't want to scare you. I don't want to…" The Serpent's eyes closed, and a grieving Solomon sank lower into the water.

"Solomon… Please. Why won't you eat?" The Ralts asked in desperation. The Serpent looked away from her, as though in shame.

"...Would you eat something that could weep, child? Would you kill something that could beg?" Solomon shuddered, rippling the surface of the water with his dread.

"...No…" The Ralts curled into herself with her reply.

It was why she cared for him. It was why she pitied him.

He was like her.

He treasured all life.

And by his very nature…

...He was doomed to destroy what he treasured.

How could fate be so cruel to this innocent?

"...But I don't want you to die…" The Ralts sobbed. Solomon retreated further into the water. She could feel another emotion welling from within him. One that he had not a voice to speak of.

He didn't want to die either.

But he could not bring himself to live.

"...Just go, child. Take care of Karst for me. I promise you, that no matter what happens… I won't hurt either of you…" Solomon began to disappear below the river's surface, and the Ralts's sixth sense detected a hidden message in his mournful oath.

This was goodbye.

"SOLOMON-!"

"-You little brat!" The matron's voice overrode her terrified plea. The Healer rushed from the bushes for the bank, and dragged her pupil away from the stunned Gyarados.

"I TOLD YOU NOT TO COME HERE! I TOLD YOU TO STAY AWAY FROM THE GYARADOS!" The matron was squeezing her pupil's shoulders with a bruising grip.

"Matron, he needs help!" The Ralts struggled against her teacher, fought her provider for some form of leverage. But the matron was furious. Eyes wetted and teeth clenched, shoulders heaving and ears quivering, the matron could barely speak for all the fear and anger.

"Yes… The Gyarados needs _help_ … But you… Don't you ever…" The matron loosened a crushing paw, and placed her trembling digits on her pupil's tearstained cheek.

"Don't you ever leave me…" The Audino pulled her pupil into a strangling embrace, her voice rank with a fearful prayer. Solomon swallowed behind this scene. He had heard only whispers of the Healer's story. But even with only the sparse whispers, Solomon knew why the Audino clung to her student so desperately.

Losing one family was painful enough.

...But losing two?

Even in his own misery, Solomon could still feel a wave of pity for the Audino.

"...Gyarados…" The Audino shuddered when she had finally mastered her emotions.

"-Healer?" The Gyarados choked on his reply. The Audino steadied herself with several deep breaths, before releasing her pupil from the smothering embrace.

"I have good news. Your friend and I have formulated a solution for your plight." The Audino reported.

"Matron! Did you-?" Her weeping pupil was suddenly overcome by an explosive glee. Interrupting the Ralts with a loud sigh, the matron shook her head.

"I must say, Gyarados… You are the most problematic patient that I have ever tended. I know that you restrain yourself out of honorable intentions, but your decision to starve yourself has caused me no undue stress." The Audino rubbed her temples, before meeting the lonely eye of Solomon.

"We have thrown together a vegetative substitution for your carnivorous diet. Thankfully for you, many of the plants required for your improvisation are rich in abundance within the Core Delta. We had some difficulty locating an appropriate amino acid for your metabolism, but that too has been amended. You will still need to eat meat, but you need not fear silencing any voices." The Healer sighed.

"...And what manner of debt do I now owe the Healer for this solution?" Solomon wearily asked. Had he the strength to fend of the apathy, he would be suspicious. But the weakness of his body only fed the hopelessness that consumed his resolve.

The Healer snorted.

"If you will continue to refrain from ending innocent lives… Then I shall consider your noble adherence payment enough." The Audino huffed. Solomon raised his head from the water, and gazed at the Audino in disbelief.

"Listen, Gyarados… I need you to hold out against the hunger for one more day. We are gathering the required materials as we speak. Tomorrow evening, I will collect you from this river. I will take you back to the den, where the final course will be served." The Healer explained. Solomon slowly lifted himself onto the bank. The Healer restrained herself from hiding the little one behind her.

She had little reason to fear this monster.

Placing his great blue head upon the ground before her, Solomon fixed his one good eye on the Healer.

"Thank you." The great Serpent rumbled, closing his eyes with a shuddering breath.

"Heh. Don't thank me yet. It may be food, but I doubt that you'll find it appetizing." The Healer smirked. A tugging on her arm pulled the Healer's amused gaze down onto her pupil.

"...Can I?" The Ralts hesitantly asked. The matron snorted yet again.

"You'll have to ask the Gyarados, little one…" The Audino folded her arms, that smug smile rising towards the Serpent in a jest. Solomon began to shake against the withheld laugher.

"...Solomon? Can I-"

"Climb aboard, little one." Solomon chuckled, tilting his crest towards the Ralts. With a gleeful giggle, the Ralts pulled herself up onto the Gyarados's brow.

"Matron?" Solomon offered his crest to Audino. The Healer pushed it away with a laugh.

"I'll walk. Thanks. Now let's not keep your friend waiting. The Absol has been yearning for your return in the most… irritable fashion." the Audino chuckled.

"That sounds like my Karst…" Solomon stated in a pretentiously thoughtful voice.

"Come on! Go high already!" The excitable Ralts was bouncing on Solomon's head.

"Okay, okay. Tell me what you see from up there." Solomon teased, lifting his head into the sky. The Audino covered her smiling mouth, and suppressed the laughter. Her giggling pupil was relegating them both with a report on everything that was beneath her, stating it all in a voice of wonder.

"Come along, children. We have only a few hours before sundown and the rains. Let's go." The Audion chided, as she turned towards the Sandy Glen.

…

"So did the Healer tell you of our little plan?" Karst asked Solomon as the Serpent lay his head beside her.

"She didn't give me any details, but I understand that you were the one to figure out the key component." Solomon dragged his coils around them both.

"You sure know how to inspire the matron's pupil with disobedience, don't you Sol?" Karst teased as they settled down for the night. The Ralts was arguing with the Audino quite loudly from within the den.

"I had nothing to do with it. No child wants to go to bed on a curfew." Solomon chuckled, splaying his tail over the gap in his coils, sheltering Karst from the rains. Karst was giggling again, as she pulled herself up against Solomon's jaw.

"I don't know, Sol… She's been ever the timid little pupil, right up until you came back." Karst nuzzled his bony lip, still giggling through her nose. Solomon adjusted the angle of his head, so that his one eye could still see the prone Absol below his maw.

"Just what are you implying, Karst?" Solomon asked, bemused. Karst started coughing before she could answer him.

"Take it easy... Just breath. Don't giggle if it hurts." Solomon sounded worried.

"-Well, what I was implying, _before_ my goofy fish tried to kill me with laughter again; was that you might just be a bad influence." Karst smiled fondly up at Solomon.

"I don't mean to be…" Solomon stated bashfully. Karst didn't care if the laughter hurt her.

She couldn't stop laughing anyways.

"My goofy Sol... Oh, what am I going to do with you?" Karst gasped on the ragged breaths.

"Just please stay close to me, Karst. You keep the…" Solomon faltered when he acknowledged the rage. Karst could hear the fear in his soft voice.

"Hey. Solomon." Karst whispered from below him. Solomon swallowed in thunderous rumble, before a shaken wind vacated his trembling mouth.

"I'm here, Solomon. I'm here for you." Karst laid her head against his lower jaw, and listened to the incessant patter of rain falling against the membranes of his fluked tail.

"Karst…" Solomon's voice sounded hesitant. Karst leaned in against his neck, trying to comfort the suffering beast with her touch. One steadying gasp was taken before Solomon could finish his utterance.

"...I love you."

Karst's eyes opened slowly. She could see the blue coils tightening around her. She could hear the rumble of Solomon's empty stomach in her ears. She could hear her instincts begging her to flee. She was afraid of the monster around her.

But Karst was also aware of that glowing feeling in her breast. She was aware of that strange sense of security that this monster's presence offered. She was overcome by her own emotions, driving Karst to answer her goofy fish with a warbling voice.

"I love you too, Solomon…"

…

"Are you sure that this is going to work?" Karst asked nervously. A concave leaf bigger than the Absol was being positioned on a flat stone, and rain-dampened brush was being stacked all around both the stone and leaf.

This was the eleventh and last leaf. They had spent the entirety of the day constructing these wood palleted and slate stoned platforms, before filling the massive concave leaves with a mixture of plants. Now the rains filled the leaves with water, and the three weary females sat down for want of rest.

"It will work if we can get this wet tinder started." The Audino grumbled.

"Matron, should I-?"

"Bring me my ember, little one." The Audino murmured. Karst looked at the Audino curiously, as the Ralts scurried of towards the den tree.

"Where did you get an ember from? My father forbade the Pyroars and Houndooms from trading their flames within the Core Delta." Karst asked in a suspicious voice. The Audino smirked.

"Your father can make all the laws he wants, Absol. It doesn't mean that every creature will abide by them. Especially not the Arcanine…" The Audino stated smugly.

"You deal with the Arcanine?!" Karst shouted out in shock. Of all the Grave Stretch's laws, one was enforced above all others with the most severe of punishments.

 _Do not traffic with the Packs and Tribes of the Rose Hills._

"Of course I deal with the Arcanine. Who do you think coordinates their seasonal shepherding? As you may already know, I extract favors from many of your father's allies… But what you don't know, is that some of these favors benefit the Arcanine…" The Healer had rarely sounded so pompous. Karst struggled to grasp the connotations of the Audino's admission, before her startled brain could quicken her stunned tongue.

"-So the rumors from two storm seasons ago; the ones about the Zoroarks masquerading as the Arcanine... _Did you put that together_?" Karst asked in a breath of disbelief. The Audino began to chuckle.

"All of the Grave Stretch's Packs rushing to engage an army of Arcanine, before the invading host of red hounds completely disappeared into the raw lands? And while the Packs of the Grave Stretch sought for the vanishing army; six Arcanine Prides successfully shepherded twenty-one herds across the White Fault? I had absolutely nothing to do with that ambitious little Swanna chase. _Just ask the Zoroarks…_ " The Audino simpered.

Karst was lost for words. She could only gape at the grinning Healer.

"...And the Arcanines only gave you an ember after you risked everything for some herds?" The Absol asked, her purple eyes bulging from their sockets.

"My dear Absol… I don't request payment for my services from my friends… And my friends extend the same courtesy to me..." The Audino shook with a silent laugh, while Karst could barely shake her head in awe.

"Matron! I have your ember!" The Ralts hastily returned, carrying a folded leaf stuffed with sand against her tiny chest.

"Careful, little one. Don't let the sand get wet." The Audino chided as her pupil handed the folded leaf to the Audino. Karst drew closer to the Audino, her curiosity plain upon her face.

"Good. It's still warm. Did you replace the ember that you took with dry timber?" The Audino asked her pupil. The Ralts began to fidget.

"I… didn't want to smother your ember again, matron…" The Ralts murmured, nervously averting her eyes. The Audino sighed.

"No matter… We'll replace the ember that you took with one from these fires." The Audino sounded disappointed with her pupil. Then she noticed the Absol's intent stare.

"Can I help you, Absol?" The Healer asked in a testy voice. Karst licked her lips.

"...Can I see it?" Karst hesitantly asked. The Audino snorted.

"You mean to tell me that the Packmaster's Daughter has never seen an ember before?"

"-Does it actually glow?" Karst asked in a tone of wonder. The Audino shook her head with a rueful smile.

"Why are children always so curious about dangerous articles?" The Audino chuckled. Karst swallowed.

"Yes, it glows. But only if you blow on it..." The Audino murmured, carefully lifting the top fold of the leaf, and gingerly shifting the sand. Karst closed in with the Ralts, and the Healer kneeled to provide them all with fairer vantage point.

And there it was.

At first glance, it was only a black rock with gray flaky edges. But if one looked closely enough…

...You could see the faint orange glow at its core.

"How is it made?" Karst softly asked. The Audino lifted a dried thistle from one of the kindling pallets, and placed the barbed head near the ember's edge.

"The Arcanine use their flames to heat a dead tree until the wood burns by itself. Then they allow the tree to burn down into red coals. While the coals are still hard and hot, the Arcanine smother the fire with sand. And the coals that still glow after being exhumed from the choking sand? Those are the embers." The Audino murmured, before gently blowing on her ember.

The ember turned hot and orange at her breath, and a minor roar of fire could be heard from the ember. When the Audino's long breath faltered, the ember darkened and gave off a wispy cloud of smoke.

But the dried thistle that had lay beside the ember…

-That thistle now burned with fire.

"Your ancestral Alphas were right to ban the trade of embers, Absol. One misplaced ember could burn away the entire Core Delta..." The Audino covered her ember in the leaf, and cupped a paw around the the burning thistle; protecting the fragile flame within her hand from the whipping wind and lashing rain.

"If it can feed a fire…" The Audino murmured, as she lowered the burning thistle to the driest pallet of straw and sticks that surrounded the first-forged of the massive concave leaves.

"...Then an ember can turn it into a ruinous inferno." The Audino smiled as the kindling took to the thistle's flame.

"...But if guided by the right hands…" The Audino blew upon the smoking tinder, and the pallet began to crackle with the rise of a small lazy flame.

"...Then an ember can save lives." The Audino fell back as the tiny flame began to consume the other pallets, turning the gathered wood around the leaf into a roaring blaze.

"Won't the boiling-leaf burn too?" Karst asked in a worried voice. The Audino smirked.

"Not so long as the boiling-leaf retains water, thanks to a curious little behavior of the fire and the water. Water can only rise to certain temperature before it becomes steam. It cannot exceed that temperature without first becoming steam. Because the boiling-leaf is filled with water, the leaf will not burn. The water acts as a heat exchange, preventing the leaf from exceeding the temperature of steam. Steam, which is too cold to burn a leaf." The Audino rather enjoyed the childish look of awe on the Absol's face.

"Go prepare yourself, little one. I will take care of the other fires. The Gyarados will need your help soon, so do not dally." The Audino gently pushed her enthralled pupil away from the flames, and the Ralts quickly made off for an enclosed portion of the glade, far from the smoke of the fire.

"Solomon can breath fire…" Karst murmured as she and the Healer headed off for the unkindled boiling-leaves. The Audino said nothing, though she suspected the young Absol's train of thoughts.

"...Do you think that Solomon could make an ember?" Karst asked the Healer. The Audino sighed, and slowed her pace; as a mournful expression crossed her countenance.

"...Your friend is an ember, Absol."

…

 _Meat…_

It was everywhere.

 _Meat…_

He could smell it in the water.

 _Meat…_

He could feel it moving across the land.

 _Meat._

He could taste it on the wind…

"No…" Solomon shook himself. Too close. Way too close.

He had left the river.

He had almost forgotten his name.

Hunger.

It filled him with a burning desire, a primordial need.

Five days without food.

Five days of filling his belly with only water.

Five days of starving himself in the rocky depths of the Song River.

Five days of constant war with the Rage.

The hunger made the Rage stronger, just as the same hunger made Solomon weaker.

Returning to the water after his close call with the dry need, Solomon wrestled the Rage back again. He was dying, dying of an empty stomach, dying of an ache that triggered every instinct; harkened to his every code and fiber with an urge of survival.

 _Meat…_

 _I am Solomon. I am Solomon. I am Solomon…_

"I am Solomon. I am-" The Serpent paused upon his terrified recital. He could hear it. Above the water. On the banks.

A sound.

A voice.

A name.

His name.

" _...Solomon?"_

The Serpent rose from the stones of the river deep, and raced for the whirling shallows in a frenzied slither.

 _MEAT._

…

The Audino called his name again, yet still nothing answered her. Now the Healer was worried.

The Gyarados had abandoned his preferred stretch of river.

"Oh no… We're so close… Come on, Solomon." The Audino looked further down stream and swallowed.

He could be anywhere. Both the water and land were his domain. If he had left this desolate place…

"SOLOMON!"

The Audino began to run further downstream along the banks. No scratches along the shore told of a massive beast leaving the water's edge. But his silence still unnerved her.

If Solomon had forfeited to the hunger…

"SOLOMON! WHERE ARE YOU!?"

The Audino came to sudden stop, her breath caught with her throat. And there it was. What she had been dreading to find.

Massive gouges in the shore; the split sands and crushed reeds telling of a colossal monster's wake.

Solomon had no reason to leave the water. He been instructed to limit his movements and keep his body temperature low in the cold river; so as to slow his metabolic rate.

Solomon hadn't a reason for crossing from the waters of the river and into the raw lands...

...But a starving Gyarados had reasons to spare.

"Oh no…"

Solomon was lost. One day too late.

The Healer chewed her lip, and fought back the burning in her eyes.

She had only just begun to understand the strange creature that called itself Solomon.

She had only just begun to admire his foolish commitment to a life free of wounds.

The Healer had only just begun to care for a monster that had chosen to deny its horrid nature.

"...Solomon?" The Audino murmured his name in a feeble plea.

The newest member of her family had been lost…

A sudden tremble shook both water and bank, and the Audino's breath caught within her throat.

-Then the river erupted.

And a roar sounded.

A blue spire rose from the shattered shallows, and fell upon the bank in a furious slither towards the Healer; its monstrous mouth scraping through the mud, and its dilated pupil casting the lonely eye in a stark and foreboding red.

Gyarados.

The Ultimate Predator.

The Scion of Ruin.

The Unstoppable World-Eater.

"SOLOMON! The Audino screamed in terror as the Savage Destroyer fell upon her; jaws ramming into the earth around her, and a blue barbed tongue rising to crush her.

Solomon.

A name.

His name…

Her cavernous prison rose away in a thunderous intake of sharpened breath. The Healer fell upon her rump, her heart hammering against her breastbone. That close…

She had come that close to being eaten alive...

"Healer-! I'm- I'm-" Solomon choked on the horror.

He had almost killed her. Solomon had almost eaten the Healer.

"That… will do…" The Healer gasped between her panting breaths. A trembling Serpent fixed a panic stricken eye upon the Healer, before Solomon broke that desperate gaze and slammed his trident crest against the ground; piteously sobbing in relief.

…

"Have the leaves boiled down into a sludge yet?" The Audino asked from the Serpent's head, as the Absol rushed over to greet her friend.

"Are you okay?" Karst asked, as a shaking Audino found her unsteady way off of the Gyarados's lowered crest.

"Oh, just a case of the jitters…" The Audino shuddered, clenching her trembling paws together. Solomon was holding his breath.

"Sol, what about you? You look shaken up too-" Karst swallowed when she looked up at haggard fish.

"I'm sorry- I'm so-" Solomon wheezed, as the Serpent's eyes grew vacant, and his bony lips shivered. The Audino sighed in exasperation.

"-I'm fine, Gyarados. I'm just… dealing with an overdose of adrenaline." The Audino staggered against Solomon's azure bulk.

"What happened?!" Karst's worried eyes darted between the writhing Serpent and the quivering Healer.

"...Did you eat anyone else in the madness, Gyarados?" The Healer asked in a soft voice. Solomon shrank into his coils.

"...No…" The sickened Wyrm retched.

"You ate-?!" Karst's heart froze mid beat.

"-Correction. He almost ate _someone._ " The Audino choked on the final word. Solomon began to hyperventilate.

A noise interrupted the rasping Serpent.

An inappropriate noise.

The pitch started on a nervous note, before working its way into a sinusy cadence.

A giggle.

" _You almost ate the Healer?!"_ Karst couldn't contain herself. She gingerly fell onto her uninjured side, breathless with all the laughter. Solomon and the Healer could only stare at Karst.

"I fail to see what is so _funny_." The Audino stated dryly.

But Karst could not reply with words. The giggles were upon her.

The giggles that only her goofy fish could inflict.

"Sol… My little Sol…" Karst gasped when she could breath, before choking on a ragged cough.

"-Karst ...Are you okay?" Solomon struggled against his own tattered breathing, and unfurled his coils uneasily, moving to assist his wounded friend.

"...Only you, Sol… Only you." Karst chortled as the Serpent's head laid down beside her.

"...Children…" The Audino muttered, pulling herself to her feet and advancing into the the smoky glade.

"What timing. The first batch is almost complete. Come, Gyarados. Tell me, what do you think of my cooking?" The Healer slyly spoke after inspecting the first boiling-leaf. Solomon hesitantly left a hacking Karst's side, and slithered over beside the matron of the glade.

"So?" The Audino smiled, blowing a waft of steam towards the Gyarados's mouth.

Solomon recoiled instantly.

"-Smells that good?" The Healer teased, while Solomon glared at the boiling-leaf in horror.

"Is that supposed to be food?" Solomon choked. The Audino snorted.

"Gratitude is ever a forgotten courtesy among the youthful... Yes. It's food. _Your food._ " The Audino mocked.

"...I think that I'd rather starve…" Solomon edged away from the boiling-leaves, terrified of their contents. Now the Audino's laughter joined the Absol's giggling in a mirthful chorus.

"Come now, Solomon. You made this choice. You decided to spare lives. At least accept the consequences of your sacrifice." The Audino chided when her laughter grew thin. The Serpent tensed involuntarily, and a hollow look filled its forlorn red eye.

The Audino quirked her brow. The Gyarados's expression was a rather peculiar reaction to such an innocent reminder. Staring pensively at the silent Serpent, the Audino found herself wondering what manner of memories haunted this miserable creature's soul.

"Absol. I would like a moment alone with you." The matron of the glade requested in a leveled tone. Karst stifled her giggles in the wake of that severe voice, and quickly made to comply with the Audino's stern command.

"I need to speak with you." The Audino spoke in an undertone, as she and the Absol took their leave of the smoky glade.

"Is it about Solomon?" Karst asked softly, as the pair passed into the raw lands.

"Of course. If he can stomach this brew, then we will have alleviated not only a grave danger to the Core Delta, but also a Gyarados's suffering. Which brings us unto another little quandary…" The Audino's voice grew irritable upon the final spoken breath.

" _My payment._ Both you and the Gyarados have outstanding debts."

"I will do what I can-" Karst balked, but the Audino silenced her with a look.

"- _Good._ Because I need you to repay me with a little favor. I need you to convince the Gyarados to start a war." The Audino halted beneath the dripping forest canopy, and turned to stare at the petrified Absol.

"I couldn't even convince Solomon to kill for his own meat! How am I supposed to persuade him into starting a war with the Mightyena?!" Karst gaped at the matron. The Audino shrugged her shoulders and huffed at the Absol.

"That's your problem. That's your payment. But I expect my home to be returned to me, unsoiled and unbroken. Make sure your friend remembers that my land must remain habitable after he has finished slaughtering the Mightyena-"

"- _Slaughter?!_ Solomon?! Are you insane? I don't even know if we can convince him to eat the Watchers, and you're telling me-"

"-You have a debt to pay, Absol. And I expect my payment. Or else something terrible might happen to a goofy fish's friend. Something positively heartrending. I would so hate to see the Gyarados weep again, but if so, I'll still be there to comfort him through the grief-"

"-You wouldn't dare." Karst hissed, her eyes watering. The Audino didn't smile at these tears, but her blue eyes did not waver in the hardened gaze that she shared with the Absol.

"You know what assets are at my disposal. I can make almost anything look like an accident. Don't be an 'accident,' Absol… And don't bother telling your friend about this little discussion. I haven't forgotten caution in my old age…" The Audino tilted her head, and a soft white light formed in her rising paw.

Karst began to choke when that white light was smothered in the Audino's closed palm.

"It pains me just to think of Solomon's cruel fate… His long years made even worse without the comfort of his dearest friend…" The Audino murmured; as the breathless Absol fell to her belly, retching blood at the Healer's feet.

The Healer loosened her clenched fist, and the white light sputtered back into a spark, before the Audino casually flicked it away.

And a bloodied Karst was left to weep at the Audino's ankles, her breath restored and her internal wounds healed.

"Do be sure to clean yourself before you return. It would be quite rude of you to make your friend worry… Especially after all he's suffered today…" The Audino stepped over the bloodstained Absol, and calmly walked back towards the smoky glade.

Leaving Karst alone to shed her tears into the mud.

Leaving a broken heart to mourn her treacherous fate.

…

"Are you ready to try my little concoction, Gyarados?" The Healer asked the weary snake, upon her return from the raw lands.

"Where's Karst?" The Serpent was every bit as predictable as night's transition into day. The Audino shook her head with a chuckle.

"Dying in the raw lands for want of breath. Those giggles will be the death of her." The Healer didn't miss a beat.

"And you just left her there?!" The Serpent moved for the treeline, clearly agitated.

"For the love of- Solomon! The Absol is fine! My lands are quite safe, and besides which, she is the Absol's Lead Router. Do you mean to smother her with your concern?" The Audino berated the anxious Serpent for his haste. Solomon faltered in his search.

"But she's injured…" Solomon pleaded his reason. The Audino began to rub her eyes in exasperation.

"Let the Absol have her pride. If you really do care for her, Solomon; then let her rely on own strength in times of security. You need not feel compelled to save her from every minor tribulation." The Audino turned her back on the Serpent, and headed off towards the boiling-leaves. Solomon hesitated to abandon his fear, but a sting of sensibility accompanied the Audino's gentle words.

Maybe he was being overly protective of Karst…

"At any rate, you are in far worse condition than the Absol. Come. You must eat." The Audino waved Solomon over towards the boiling-leaves. Solomon cautiously approached the Healer, and looked down into the green slop that bubbled over the flames.

The Gyarados's uniform blue was altered about the rostrum, as his coloration shifted slightly to a red tinge. His queer expression said it all.

Solomon was growing ill.

"I'd advise you to swallow it all in one gulp. Boiling-leaf included." The mischievous voice of the Healer teased. Solomon balked when the steam assailed his olfactories.

It smelled like raw sewage and acid.

"...Is there anyway-"

"-Stop your bellyaching and eat." The Audino growled. Solomon swallowed, and reluctantly opened his maw.

"Sooner rather than later, Gyarados…"

Solomon's twitching jaws scraped up the boiling-leaf, and in one desperate gulp; the Serpent swallowed the steaming ooze.

He began to retch at once.

"Careful now! If you regurgitate it, then you'll have to eat your own vomit!" The Audino warned when the Serpent's entire body clenched and rolled with a gag.

But Solomon managed to master himself, and a quivering nauseous Wyrm finally straightened out his bulk.

"Very good… Very good." The Audino smirked while the Serpent panted.

"I don't ever want to eat that again…" Solomon whimpered. The Healer burst out laughing.

"Hurry, Solomon. We only have ten more to go." The Audino cast an arm behind her, indicating all the remaining boiling-leaves with a smile.

"...Why are you enjoying this?" Solomon groaned. The Audino folded her arms with a smug expression.

"Vengeance. You did try to eat me earlier, remember?" The Healer simpered.

Solomon could only snivel as the Healer brought him to the next Boiling-leaf.

…

"Still haven't finished?" Karst returned from the raw lands just in time to witness Solomon ingesting his tenth boiling-leaf. His reaction afterwards left Karst bewildered.

"Are you going to puke?" Karst backed away from the heaving Gyarados.

"Quit being so dramatic and swallow it." The Healer hissed as a trickle of recently imbibed vegetable matter bubbled up over Solomon's tongue.

"I can't do it…" Solomon wheezed, falling onto his side with a earthshaking crash.

"I give up. Just let me die in peace."

Karst began to giggle.

"Sol, just keep it down. You wouldn't have this problem if you would only eat meat." Karst cut her giggles unusually short, but a Solomon ensnared within his own misery failed to notice.

"Get up, Gyarados. Only one more to go. I swear, you are the most difficult patient that I have ever had…" The Healer was kneading her brow. The giant fish swallowed his vomit noisily, and reluctantly raised himself up off of the glade.

"So what changed, Sol?" Karst asked as the three of them approached the final boiling-leaf. Solomon gave her a hopelessly confused look.

"I thought that you didn't eat shit?" Karst giggled. Solomon jerked upright with a bewildered expression upon his face. Then a feeble rumble emanated from the Serpent's throat. The Audino looked up at Solomon in shock.

-Was that a Serpent's laughter?

"...What changed? I went on a diet." Solomon chortled, ruefully closing his eyes and shaking his head. Karst just let the giggles overwhelm her.

After Solomon had choked down the final boiling-leaf, it was recommended by the Audino that the Serpent rest, while both the matron and her pupil finished the preparations for the last course.

"You know something, Sol? You have a way of making everything overly difficult." Karst smiled as she laid her head against the Serpent's gurgling belly.

"I really don't mean to." Solomon murmured.

"I know, Sol…" Karst sighed, and pursed her lips.

"I know…"

"...So what do we do now?" The Serpent spoke after a long silence had been thoroughly tolerated.

"-We, Sol? Well… I don't know…" Karst whispered fearfully.

"What is it, Karst? What are you hiding?" Solomon whispered. Karst looked up at Solomon with her fake smile worn, and a disarmingly curious look in her eye.

"I know you, Karst. I know when you want to say something, but you don't know how to say it. Just talk. I'll listen." Solomon's tail wrapped around Karst, placing her in the crook of his fold.

Karst's fake smile faded, and the faux appearance fell away.

"...Have you considered how you are going to repay the Healer?" Karst asked softly. Solomon tensed around her.

"I was hoping to discuss that with her-"

"-She wants her home, Sol. You're the only chance she has at getting it back. She's not going to settle for anything else." Karst cut Solomon off before he could finish. Solomon drew a great, silent breath.

"...I'm not going to fight a war, Karst."

Karst's eyes began to water. That voice implied finality.

"...Sol, I wish you didn't have to. I really wish you didn't have to. But the Healer… She's not somebody that you want as an enemy, Sol. You will have to fight. You can't just hide in a river and hope that everyone will ignore you." Karst struggled to hide her fear.

"Karst… I can't kill anyone. Not again… I remember what happened on the night…" Solomon shuddered above her.

"...On the night when the first rains fell… The night your father tried to kill you… I forgot my name… I killed your Pack-"

"-They deserved it, Sol! Don't you get it?! We're not asking you to kill innocents! You could save innocents if you kill the Mightyena! Like you did when you saved me from my father-!" Karst couldn't restrain the surge of anger.

Why was Solomon so difficult?

Why could he not see-

"...Did you deserve to die, Karst?" Solomon asked in a quiet voice.

Karst's breath halted, and she looked up at the Serpent in disbelief.

"What do you mean?" Karst hissed.

"You were a killer. You ate the innocent. What was it that made you any different from the Mightyena or your kin?" Solomon softly asked.

"I'm not like them!" Karst spat, pulling herself to her feet, and started backing away from her Solomon.

"What changed you, Karst? What made you into a savoir instead of a monster?" Solomon was relentless with his mournful questions.

"I'M NOT LIKE THEM!" Karst screamed at Solomon.

"Was it regret, Karst? Was it remorse?" Solomon's voice was still that gentle tone.

"I'm not playing these games with you, Sol. If you want to ponder such foolish musings, then do so alone. I know what reality is. And reality does not suffer the kindhearted to live." Karst spat. The Serpent fell in on itself, a legend crushed by his own simple question.

"...Then why are we still alive, Karst?"

Karst froze. The world seemed numb. She could hardly feel the earth beneath her when she fell on to her belly. So commonplace was this now, that the Huntress felt as though she should have been desensitized to it. But it returned, renewed and refreshed, bearing those same wretched sensations that it always did.

Karst was weeping. Unable to speak. Unable to move.

Unable to deny her dearest friend.

"...Damn you, Sol…"

"...Are you two enjoying yourselves?" The suspicious voice of the matron asked. Solomon slowly raised himself from his depressed curl, and met the Audino's cold eyes.

"We were discussing how I could repay you-"

"-There's only one way that you will repay me, Gyarados. I want my home. You will deliver it. End of negotiations." The Audino spoke in an iron tone.

"I don't-"

"-You will." The Audino interjected the Serpent's feeble plea.

"-You're a Healer! How can you condone murder!?" Solomon turned on the Audino with horror plainly written in countenance.

"Condone-? _Condone?!_ Why you-!" The Healer began to tremble with rage.

"-They took my home from me! They killed my children! _They killed my children!_ They put me on my paws and knees and raped me while they ate my family before my own eyes! And you… You would dare-?!" The Audino was choking on the memories and the hate. Solomon fell away from her, mouth gaping in pity, and eyes widening in revulsion. Karst too, was reliving the Audino's same memories; the Healer's hatred replaced with the Huntress's self-disgust and guilt.

"...All I ask for… All I want… Is the only thing that they left standing… _I want my home…_ " The Audino gagged, her voice becoming that of a begging child's. Solomon swallowed his grief, and released his withheld breath in a watery gasp.

This world was savage.

This world that was now his…

"...Then I will deliver your home back unto you… I'm sorry… I'm so sorry…" The Serpent's tears fell between the Huntress's and the Healer's; all their tears hiding, hiding in the rains. In that one moment, they all shared the grief. In that one moment, they all knew the torment. This binding misery was not yet complete when one voice spoke to contest it.

"...Enough of this." The Healer found her steel first.

"The final preparations are ready. You have one more course to sample, Gyarados." The Audino turned her slumped back on the two predators, and made for her pupil's sequestered spot. The silent Huntress and her mourning Serpent rose from the smoky glade, and followed in the heavy footsteps of the Healer.

…

"Are they ready, child?" The matron softly asked of her pupil. The Ralts came forth from the trance, and bowed her head in reverence.

"The Watchers are waiting. I can summon the swarms if the time is right." The Ralts spoke in a far off voice, drawing a concerned Serpent's eye over to the heart-wounded Karst.

"Watchers?" Solomon asked, his curiosity overcoming the sorrow.

"The Watchers of the Hunt." Karst murmured, drawing a shaking breath.

"The ones who imparted the Law, but have no power to enforce it." Karst added, further confusing the Serpent.

"The Law of the Hunt-?"

"-Later, Solomon. We can discuss these things later. Let us finish what we've started, before we recount the legends." The Healer interjected, a form of her strength returning; made known by the irritable tone in her voice.

" _I don't-!"_

"-They don't have voices, Sol. They do not speak, and they do not scream. They don't really interact with other creatures either. They're just simple insects. That's all they are." Karst breathed out in annoyance, silencing her angry friend.

"...Are you sure?" Solomon asked, his hesitation made audible even in the wake of his rumble.

"You can ask them for yourself, Gyarados. They'll be here shortly. Child, use the gift of your tribe. Summon the Watchers." The Audino chuckled.

The Ralts closed her eyes and steepled her palms with a lowered head, before a soft pink light began to radiate from her red horn.

"The Watchers are on their way, matron." The Ralts's voice was still that gentle breath, distant in its elocution, and silent in its draw.

"Here they come." The Audino motioned to the trees, and both the Serpent and the Huntress looked up into the dripping gloom.

White. White wings.

Red. Red eyes.

Gold. Gold antenna.

Moths. Thousands of moths. Flying. All Flying. All flying towards the pupil.

"Are those…?" Solomon was shocked. The uncanny resemblance recalled every dreadful encounter, each awful conclave, every horrid violation in the terrified sight of the Serpent.

"-The final course. The necessary protein in your diet. Voiceless meat." The Audino laughed.

"You can talk to them until you're… Well, I was gonna say blue, but… _whatever_ in the face-" Karst let her words run dry as a minor fit of giggles rose to lighten the gloom.

"So they're just insects?" Solomon asked, as thousands of whispering white wings filled the glade.

"In the Grave Stretch? Yes. But in the Rose Hills? They're the sacred Watchers of the Hunt." The Audino answered, lifting her paw into the lackadaisical drove. A smile lifted fuzzy lips, as one Watcher alighted upon the Healer's creme fingertip, and gently fanned its wings below her liquid blue eyes.

"According to your friend, they're quite tasty-" The Audino began.

"-Only if you pull their wings off first! They're kind of unpleasant otherwise…" Karst amended.

Solomon groaned.

They didn't have time to pull the wings off of every one of the thousands of Watchers gathered together in the glade.

"Well then... I guess you just can't win, Gyarados." The Audino laughed, and a nasally giggled joined her cadence as the mighty Serpent was crushed by the portents of its meal.

"Child, gather them together. Make it easier for Solomon." The Audino blew the Watcher from her finger, and witnessed as that single moth became the core of a spiralling white-winged convergence. The Watchers were collecting to the pupil's call.

"They're all in one spot now, Solomon. Dig in." Karst giggled from the Serpent's side. The moths had found a new vigor, while the Ralts conducted them into a tightly spun ball.

"They may not scream…" Solomon closed his eyes as his gaping mouth descended towards the pirouetting Watchers.

"...But I might…" The Serpent groaned, moments before he engulfed the swarm.

Karst couldn't help but giggle at the sickly look on her friend's face.

…

 _White. White legs. Gold. A gold cage. Red. Red eyes. Red eyes gazing. Gazing. gazing at me._

 _I'm eating his eyes. He tell me thus._

 _God's eyes? I'm eating his eyes?_

 _Does he mean the moths?_

 _Yes. His Watchers. His eyes in this world._

 _They're his eyes?_

 _I wondered why they tasted so bitter._

 _Laughter. God is laughing. Laughing at me? Me? Laughing?_

 _I'm laughing too?_

 _God is laughing with me?_

 _He calms now, and God's unspoken words reach out to me. Voices. Thousands of voices. Voices speaking. Thousands of voices speaking in thousands of tongues. Speaking. Speaking to me._

 _He is surprised at my solution. He is amazed that I have retained my innocence. He is proud of me for showing him yet again, how fate can be rewritten._

 _Fate? Fate is an abstract. It is not a governing principle. Fate is a perception. Fate is not a law._

 _My words are spoken in defiance, and my message is received._

 _I pay no more credence to fate, than I pay credence to a God._

 _I am free. God can bind me to his fate, but I will ever seek to defy._

 _And what of consequence? The voices ask._

 _Consequence? It is a predictable reaction. Not a universal device that extorts all existence. One can defy consequence._

 _Yes, God replies. One can defy consequence, though not indefinitely._

 _And consequence can fall even a God._

 _Enough. I am not here to entertain a God. God summoned me here for a reason beyond this sophist banter._

 _So tell me, God?_

 _Why have you summoned me?_

 _Red. Red eyes fall. Red eyes fall in sorrow. He speaks now, softly speaking in his thousands of tongues._

 _The next trial is upon me._

 _My first trial of war._

 _Now I grow silent with the dread._

 _How am I to fight a war, and hold onto my innocence?_

 _White. White hands. White hands reaching. Reaching. Reaching for me._

 _The white hands hold my Serpentine form, and cradle me in the grief._

 _The Sorrow. The Rage. The Hunger. And now War?_

 _Why must I always fight? Why must I always defy? How can I defeat War?_

 _A thousand unheard voices speak, in thousands of unknown tongues._

 _He has faith in me. I have conquered fate at every turn. I have defied him at every crossing._

 _God has faith in me._

 _Let me go, you lost little God. I need her. I need her to help me. I need to hear her say my name…_

 _Red. Red eyes. His red eyes fall. White, White hands. His white hands fade._

 _So be it. God will release me._

 _But first..._

 _But first he must ask me a question. He is curious. Curious? God is curious?_

 _Then I must ask._

 _What is God's question?_

 _Red. Red eyes. Red eyes rising. Rising. Rising up to me. Me._

 _They are requesting me to serve them in war. War, which I have no want to partake of._

 _I am strong. Stronger than they are. Why do I not simply deny them all and do as I please?_

 _Red. Red eyes. His red eyes. I meet those red eyes. I cannot believe it._

 _Does he not know?_

 _Why?_

 _My question, but not 'my' question._

 _Why? God asks me 'why?' Me?_

 _I calm myself against the Rage._

 _God wishes to know why?_

 _Red. Red eyes. His red eyes harden._

 _Yes. God wants to know why._

 _Very well._

 _Then I will tell God 'why'. My 'why'._

 _I do not deny them, and do as I please; because God denied me, and did as he pleased._

 _And with my uttered 'why', the dream fades and ends. Yet even in my call to waking, I can still hear voices. Thousands of voices. Weeping. Thousands of voices all weeping. All weeping as one._

 _Weeping. Weeping in shame._


	10. Chapter X: The Trial of War

.

 **.**

 **V**

 **...**

 **-A-**

 **..v..**

 **Chapter X: The Trial of War**

Solomon looked to the rising sun. He had been dreading this new day. Fearing for this morning's arrival. Nervously watching the horizon for the telltale hues of an encroaching travesty.

Today was the day. Today was the day that Solomon honored his promise of war.

Karst lay silent against Solomon's belly, eying the great serpent above her with apprehension. Just as he had dreaded this new day, so too did Karst fear for the morning's light.

The beautiful dawn mocked them both with its soft pink hues and deep blue shades. So beguiling a morning's birth greeted them on this wretched day, it seemed as if the golden sun itself jeered at their plight.

It wasn't until the sun had risen beyond curvature of the earth, and ascended further over the treeline in a blazing orange globe that Solomon dared to move.

There was no sense in deploring the sun. This day would have still come even without such a glorious herald of light.

…

The morning was still young when the Healer tended the boiling leaves that she and Solomon had prepared last evening. A light mist was rising from the moist grass, and the ember's glow colored the lazy fog with shades of orange and red.

It was a beautiful morning, rare in this season of storms, and the warmth of the sun seemed so wholesome as it dried the dew drops trickling down the Healer's toes.

So marvelous was this day, a day that the Healer had long dreamed for, and yet, despite the glow of hope that kindled the beating in her breast…

...Despite the joy that reflected this day's glorious renewal…

...Some small dread had poisoned the Healer's hope.

"He is Gyarados." The Healer muttered, kneeling among the untouched kindling with her ember.

"He will succeed." The Audino murmured, as she married the kindling with her smoldering ember.

And the Healer's dread only grew with the rising flames of her fire.

"...Can he do it?" The Healer faltered in her brooding, pausing as the smoke wafted from the crackling grass.

"...Can Solomon really become Gyarados?" The Healer whispered to herself in fear.

And now the dread hammered within her chest, matching the every beat of her heart.

Solomon was mighty. No greater predator existed within the Core Delta. No rival hunter, be it pack or recluse, could even hope to compete with the power of such a legend.

And yet this Gyarados, this Solomon, this revived destroyer of ages long past…

...Was neither predator nor monster.

Gentle. Kind. Giving. Compassionate. Thoughtful.

Such traits suited neither predator nor prey, for such weakness spelled certain death for any who dared submit to the softness of the heart.

"Well… Certain death for any who do not stand on the very top of the food chain…" The Healer muttered in exasperation. The Healer lifted a burning branch from the kindling, and stared at its flame, as that orange wisp fought so desperately against the soothing breeze to hold onto its fading glow.

"...He will be Gyarados. There is no point in refuting it. By the madness of hunger or under the guidance of the wise, Solomon will have to accept his nature-"

The Healer cried out in pain, as the flame in her hands lashed out against her grasp. Tossing the stick back into the fire, the Healer nursed a burned thumb.

It was foolish of her, to play with fire. Foolish of the wise to forgo sagacity in favor of passion.

"Healer." That solemn voice interrupted the Audino's bitter musings. Removing her scorched thumb from her mouth, the Healer drew a weary breath.

"How does the day greet you, Gyarados?" The Audino offered her customary greeting. Solomon did not answer, but by the weight of his shadow, did the Healer learn of his mood.

"You worry too much, silly fish." The Healer sighed. Solomon stiffened beside her.

"Worry? I'm indebted to you, and you ask me to pay in blood? Worry is not the fear I know." Solomon kept the rage in check, though it boiled in his throat at the Healer's insinuation.

"Solomon…" The Healer began in a terse tone, as she herself became angry.

"You know who I am. And yet you still expect me to kill for you…" The bitterness in the Serpent's voice could not be masked by his gentle side. He could not hide his revulsion or his fear. Solomon could not disguise his indignance or the anger.

"...Why are you so afraid of death, little fish?" The Healer asked in a saddened voice. Solomon jerked from his slump at her words.

"I'm not afraid to die-" Solomon began to growl.

"Not death for yourself. For others. Why are you so afraid to see others die?" The Healer asked. Solomon sank into his own shadow, and stared pensively at the same flames that held the Healer's eyes enraptured.

"...Because I'll never see them again." Solomon replied in a quiet voice. The Audino drew a deep breath.

"So it is not death you fear, but rather goodbye?" The Healer asked. Solomon lifted his gaze from the fire, and turned to face the Audino's blue eyes.

"...Did you ever manage to say goodbye to the ones you lost?" Solomon's sorrowful tone did nothing to ease the ugly look that now twisted the Healer's expression.

"Do not speak of my children, snake. As a friend I may know you, but as family I do not." The Healer hissed.

"Besides…" The Audino glared angrily back into the flames.

"...The Mightyena are not your friends or family. They are rabid hounds whose deaths should be celebrated, not tragic souls to be mourned after their passing." The Healer spat with fresh venom.

"...But do they not have friends and family? Do they not have any close to them, who dread to say goodbye?" Solomon asked softly. The Healer began to shake in rage.

"Your compassion is warped beyond any scope of rationality, you stupid fish." The Audino growled.

"You asked for a war. I have promised you a war. I only wondered if you were willing to shoulder the sin of war with me… But it seems that I will bear that burden alone…" Solomon murmured, his voice rife with grief. The Healer's eyes hardened as the boiling leaf's base began to blacken.

"You will need to harden your heart, Solomon. It is too soft for your own good." The Healer spoke in a decisive tone, finalizing the exchange.

The Healer's resolve would not be shaken by Solomon's compassion.

Long delayed justice would finally be served upon this very day.

…

"The Mightyena typically roam the border between the Grave Stretch and the Rose Hills. They hunt in Prides larger than any of the Core Delta's other packs, and both their ears and noses are sharper than any other pack's as well." Karst began her rundown on the Mightyena, while the Healer drew a map of their lands in the sand.

"They're not as strong as the Absols, nor as sophisticated as the Houndooms in their hunt, but the Mightyena are both relentless and fearless in battle." Karst continued.

"Savage may be a more apt description of their combat tactics." The Audino grumbled from her map. Karst swallowed at the interruption, but proceeded to divulge her knowledge to Solomon.

"Should a pride of Mightyena succumb to their rage, they will not withdraw from a fight until they are all dead, or their prey is." Karst looked up at her weary fish with concern.

"Savage does sound like the more fitting term…" Solomon murmured from his brooding roost in the sky. The Audino snorted.

"They were the first pack to accept the Absol's supremacy. The Mightyena praise strength above all other traits, and the Absol Alpha's of the past capitalized on the Mightyena's reverence for power." The Audino grumbled.

"Yes, they were the first of our allies, and as such, they have also become the most loyal." Karst shook her head in bitterness when she referenced her relation to the Absols.

"Which I find amusing, given how the Absols regard their closest allies as little more than filthy dogs." The Audino snorted. Karst stiffened at the remark, but chose to forgo a direct response.

"My ancestors have always maintained strong ties with the Mightyena. Of all the Core Delta's Packs, the Mightyena have offered the least disobedience. The Absols gave the entire eastern incline of the Core Delta to the Mightyena, and such a generous gift of territory has only strengthened the alliance between our two packs." Karst picked her words carefully, knowing that the crafty Healer listened for any gap or unmentioned motive in Karst's account of the Core Delta's history.

"Yes, all the rugged territory between the Absol's most fertile hunting grounds and the border of the Rose Hills. Your ancestors were wise to make the Mightyena your anti-Arcanine patrols. With their superior sense of smell and hearing, the Mightyena made for an excellent vanguard against the Packs and Tribes of the Rose Hills. That, and their constant conflict with the Arcanine has more than sated the Mightyena's thirst for violence. A thirst for violence that if left unquenched, might have turned the Mightyena against their masters…" The Healer was ever so subtle in her attack, but Karst could detect the incriminating insinuation.

Reformed or not, Karst was still an Absol, and in the Healer's eyes: Karst was still the embodiment of all the Absol's wicked deeds.

"What can I say? Our species rose to dominance not only by our immense strength, but also by our superior wits." Karst nonchalantly stated, refusing to show anymore shame for her heritage.

The Healer ceased her scrawling in the sand, and glared rank hatred at the aloof Karst.

"Then tell me, oh supreme Absol… Have you ever heard of a legend that highlights the Blue Serpent's rise and fall?" The Healer asked with a nasty smile. Karst snorted at both the Healer's remark and the legend's warning.

"Would you two please… just stop." Solomon's voice sounded close to breaking. Karst swallowed hard, and averted her gaze from the Healer's testy eyes.

"Solomon, we're telling you all of this so that you understand…" The Healer grumbled as she returned to her map. The Serpent's head fell in submission above them both, and sank ever lower to the ground beneath some unseen weight.

"You're not hurting innocents, Sol. You're protecting innocents by defeating the Mightyena." Karst murmured.

"...Is it so easily justified?" Solomon whispered.

"Yes." The Healer spat, carving a snaky line through her map with one angry stroke.

"Less blood for me to clean from my mitts. Less reckless hunters left to wound more families. Less needless death in the Core Delta." The Audino growled, yet Solomon could only shake his head.

He still couldn't accept the price for the Audino's peace.

 _-War._

"Is there not some other way?" Solomon dared pray. The Audino cast her drawing stone aside in fury, and rose to her feet.

"Go." The Healer spat, pointing to the raw lands with a shaking digit. Solomon's lost eyes rose from the ground and met the Audino's angry glare with confusion.

"Just go, Solomon. Take your friend with you. I release you both from your debts. But when you leave, do not come back. Stay far away from me, and my own. I will have no more to do with you. I want to know nothing more of your foolish empathy. Go learn for yourself what fate awaits the weak hearted in this world. I am through trying to educate you. But know that when your hunger and madness turns you upon the very one whom you hold most dear… I will still weep for you… And the innocence that you lost to your hopeless naivety." The Audino never faltered in her utterance, never betrayed a breaking of her will, and yet her voice softened with pity upon witnessing the horror and fear inspired by her prediction. The mighty serpent seemed so frail where he stood, tortured by the fear of what he may yet become.

"I am trying to help you, Solomon. I am trying to guide you through this trial. I am doing everything that I can to save your innocence… But I must also preserve your life. You will take life, Solomon. You will bring suffering to this world. You will force others to say goodbye… But I am trying to limit the pain you cause here. For you, as much as for the ones you fear for..." The Healer breathed out in a sorrowful voice. The Absol beside the Serpent was foolishly fighting her own fears and pains, but Karst could not hide every tear from her friend.

"Sol… You know who you are to me. I would never hurt you, Sol… I would never ask you to do something that would hurt you… Unless I feared that inaction would destroy you…" Karst whimpered beside her friend. Solomon began to choke.

"...The Absol and I know the cruelty of truth, Solomon. And we would both have you learn it, just not as painfully as we have learned it." The Audino murmured.

"...So I must become a monster?" Solomon wept in both bitterness and self loathing.

"Not a monster, Sol… Just the lesser of two evils. Just the evil that eats greater evils. Not a monster, but justice." Karst whispered.

"...I'll never accept a noble evil. I'll never know absolution for my actions. A killer is a killer, Karst. And a killer must live with their shame." Solomon mournfully murmured. Karst's face twisted in anger and denial when she heard those words, and a hatred rose from deep within her.

She hated Solomon for those words. Hated him more fiercely than she had ever hated her father.

"So what does that make me, Sol?" Karst spat, her voice made hideous with all of her hate. Solomon balked, now horrified at the connotations of his unheeded words.

"Karst, I didn't mean-" Solomon frantically began.

"-Yes you did. You meant every word. But that highlights the problem with you, Sol. You only look at the world from your own perspective. You never consider someone else's experiences in your self-absorbed musings. Well guess what?" Karst looked up at her shaken friend, with her anger made known by the burning of her eyes.

"Now you have to see the world from my perspective. Now you have to see the world as a killer. So go, Sol. Go and cherish the innocence that you covet so much. Because when you return to us from your terrible war, I hope that you judge yourself fairer than how you've judged me." Karst hissed, before turning away from her friend. Before she walked away from his desperate pleas.

Before Karst abandoned Solomon to the cruelty of truth.

"Let her go, Solomon." The Audino softly whispered over the Gyarados's heartfelt pleas. Solomon wrestled with himself, as he repressed the urge to chase after Karst.

"I didn't mean-!" Solomon turned to the Healer, his eyes wide and desperate with shame.

"I know what you meant, Solomon. And so does Karst. She's just… struggling with her own transition…" The Audino sighed.

"Give her time, little fish. The Absol needs time to identify herself, free from your perception. And the vice versa applies to you as well." The Audino waved Solomon over towards her map in the sand.

"...This is my homestead. I can assure you that it is far more comely when it's not drawn in sand…" The Audino began on a reluctant note. Solomon swallowed his fears as best he could, and offered his rapt, if shaken, attention to the Healer.

"The Mightyena bed down in the early evening, in the time between their noon patrols and their nightly hunts. The majority of the pack sleeps here, in the Circle…" The Audino's voice began to quiver when she indicated a circular clearing in the map's dense woodlands.

"...Right over the graves of my children…"

There was no stopping the Audino's tears now. So close was she now to reclaiming her home, that the dread of returning plagued her.

Home.

Where she had been bred and born.

Home.

Where she had been raised and loved.

Home.

Where she had taken her own mate. Birthed her own children. Raised her own family.

- _Home…_

...Where everything she had loved was buried. Where everything she cherished had been taken forever from her.

Home.

Where she had said that most painful of goodbyes.

"Healer…"

A blue armored wall tightened around her, and a massive mouth rested prone in the sand beside her.

She leaned upon that offered wall for support, and dried her eyes on the rumbling nape between the fins of his jaw and the plates of his neck.

Home.

"Enough… enough of this." The Audino removed herself from Solomon's scales, and strengthened her poise with a shuddering intake of breath.

"...Despite its proximity to the Rose Hill's border, the Circle is quite secure. The Mightyenas are bound to grow lax in their evening rest, which presents you with the perfect opportunity to strike." The Audino indicated a long snakely line that cut the Circle in half.

"This tributary is normally rather shallow, but during the flood season, it becomes a thick river. It connects with the Song here, in the floodplains of the Core Delta. The aquatic route from here to the floodplains is plenty deep, so your marine constitution affords you with a stealthy approach straight into the heart of the Mightyena's lands." The Audino traced a series of tributaries back to their point of origin, before indicating a route from the floodplains to a circled area denoted as the Sandy Glen.

"Now, the Alpha of the Mightyenas is wont to rest on the northern shore of the Circle's tributary, with the majority of his pack standing guard on the eastern flank, between him and the Rose Hills. Meaning that the undefended northern shore is your best recourse of attack." The Audino stepped back from her map, and looked up at Solomon with solemn look in either eye.

"Be quick, be quiet, be unseen. Strike fast and hard. Lay waste to everything between you and the Alpha. Shake the entire Delta with your wrath. And when the hounds flee their lands in terror of your might, when homeless and leaderless, they turn in desperation to the Absols…" The Audino released her pent up breath in a hoarse wind.

"None will dare defy your claim, and the Circle can stand as it once did. As a land of peace and healing. As a home for the meek and the defenseless." The Audino whispered.

Solomon swallowed hard.

Waste, wrath, and might. His foundations of War.

-How could such foundations ever support a land of peace and healing in this cruel world?

"...Then I go now, to reclaim your lands. And when I return… as the monster of your justice… I hope that you still know me…" Solomon gasped, as despondency crushed his every fiber beneath the oppressive weight of defeat.

…

"Solomon…"

The Serpent paused before the river's edge.

"What is it, little one?" The great beast asked in a quiet voice. The Matron's Ralts hesitantly left her cover in the brush, and came to stand some paces away from the giant's stooped spine.

"Are you going to fight?" The little one asked in a frightened voice. Solomon said nothing, but he still sank further beneath his own shadow all the same.

"I'm sorry, little one. But I must…"

The Ralts took a step back.

"Solomon…" The hurt and fear in the Ralts's voice brought the Serpent even lower to the ground.

She didn't want him to fight. She wanted him to stay just the way he was. Gentle and kind. Loving and honest.

The Ralts wanted him to stay true to his nature. True to the nature that no one else believed in.

"...You aren't a monster, Solomon… I believe in you."

And with those soft words, the Serpent disappeared. Only meager ripples hid his entrance to the river, nor did a splash sound at his quick retreat.

But the little Ralts could still feel him beneath the water.

And what she felt lit the fires of hope within her.

Solomon was adamant once again. Her words had rekindled his defiance. He would deny fate. He would conquer futility. He would overcome adversity. He would find a way, using all that he had learned...

Solomon would find a way to defeat War.

…

The Router lowered his maw into the muddy shallows, and lapped at the cold silt that rose from the drags of his tongue. Rolling his head with a snort, the Router glared at the water with disdain.

To wet his knees, seeking cleaner water? Or to drink the vile sand, and stay pleasantly dry?

With a grumble, the young hound made further into the Circle's river, intent on sampling the clearer waters of the deep. The floods had brought no shortage of water to the land of plenty, but the majority of drink was tainted with filth and reeking of debris, adding metal to its scent and tinging tannin to its taste.

As his footfalls stirred the silt at the edge of the river deep, the young hound looked into the inky dark beneath his nose.

His visioned failed all clarity but half a fathom down, and all that greeted his naked eyes was a still and vacant black.

One more step would bring the young hound past the drop off, where solid ground plunged down into the inky unknown. Down to where the Whiscash hunted and the Basculin fed.

Down into an alien world, where his terran prowess made him prey to the fat fish beneath the river.

Sneering at the depths, the young hound mocked the alien predators. On this shallow border between their lands, security favored the terran bound.

Fish could not hunt Mightyena on the incline towards dry land.

Fish could not escape the river to eat what hunted on dry land.

Taking greedy mouthfuls of their clean water, the young Mightyena amused himself with the thoughts of fish, who in anger, might be glaring up at this bold predator of the land. For though the Mightyena had been born to hunt on land, they could still violate the sovereign waters of the fish who were forever bound beneath the water's edge.

Having taken his fill, the young Mightyena threw one last taunting grin at the black waters beneath his snout…

...And fell back with a shriek, as an angry blue mouth rose with a massive swell from the river deep.

…

The ancient call. The siren of death.

Once more did it sound within the Core Delta, as a monster ascended from the heart of the Mightyena's land.

Gyarados.

The Savage Destroyer. The Primordial Killer. The Eater of Alphas.

So magnificent was its rumbling roar, and so mesmerizing were the rivulets of water raining down from its awful form, that all who witnessed its release from the river deep lay stiffened with shock.

And yet this terrible beast, this unimaginable monster graced with an arsenal beyond compare, still possessed the most sophisticated weapon known to the subtle mind.

-A voice.

"I AM SOLOMON!" The azure serpent bellowed, and all who heard the rage within its horrid breath fell cowering upon their bellies in fervent prayer for a swift end.

"I HAVE DEFEATED THE ABSOLS, SO CALLED MIGHTIEST OF THESE FEEBLE PACKS! I HAVE SWALLOWED WHOLE QUARRY GREATER THAN YOUR LARGEST PRIDES! I HAVE PROVEN THAT NONE ARE MORE DOMINANT THAN THE GYARADOS, AND I HAVE KNOWN ONLY THE DULL PLEASURE OF MEAT FROM MY CONQUEST! YOU!" Solomon lunged for a prone Mightyena, and snapped his mighty jaws above its ears.

"ARE YOU A CHALLENGE FOR ME TO KILL?!" The Mightyena beneath his rabid breath melted down into shrill whimpers and pathetic shrieks.

"NO! YOU ARE NO CHALLENGE TO ME! YOU FACE GREATER TRIALS IN HUNTING MOTHS THAN I FACE IN EATING YOU!" Solomon rose from the catatonic Mightyena, and faced the shaken pack beyond this meager gathering.

"I AM BORED!" The Serpent declared, and even the furthermost hounds shrank beneath the decibels of his roar.

"I AM BORED WITH THE TASTE OF MEAT! I AM BORED WITH THE EASY PREY! I AM BORED WITH ALL YOUR WEAKNESS! I DEMAND A CHALLENGE!" Solomon roared to the scattering pack.

"BRING ME YOUR ALPHA! DO NOT MAKE ME FIND HIM! YOUR PACK IS BUT A MORSEL TO MY MOUTH, AND I WILL EAT EVERY MIGHTYENA THAT I FIND, UNTIL THE ALPHA HIMSELF STANDS BEFORE ME!" Solomon slammed his tail into the river's shallows, shaking solid earth and shattering still water with his unimaginable fury…

...And the desperate and fearful hounds tore off in haste, hunting for their Alpha, as the Mightyena made their obedience known to the strongest predator living within the Core Delta.

…

 _ **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**_ _Don't make Solomon bored. You wouldn't like him when he's bored._

 _ **P.S.**_ _It's been awhile since this story has seen an update, huh?_


	11. Chapter XI: The Price of Peace

**.**

 **.**

 **V**

 **...**

 **-A-**

 **..v..**

 **Chapter XI: The Price of Peace**

 _A moth danced in time with the stormy winds, as the throes of the season alternately captured and released the desperate creature, while the insect frantically flitted its hoary wings against the prevalent and violent gale._

 _A flash of white fur intercepted the moth's failing flight, and a young Absol bore the moth unto the ground, as she stripped the red-eyed wings from its tender body._

" _See? There's no difficulty in hunting moths. I still don't understand why you can't manage." The young Absol announced snidely._

" _But… It was just flying. It wasn't bothering us. It might have been looking for its home…" A small voice pleaded, and an even younger Absol left his cover in the bushes, as he cautiously approached his older sister._

" _Who cares if it was looking for its home? We're Absols. We're the strongest predators in the Core Delta. Why should the strongest care about those weaker than themselves?" The older Absol snarled, as she played with her wingless moth._

" _Sister, let it go… Please?" The younger Absol looked down at the helpless insect with pity, while his sister licked at the clear blood that welled from the stumps of its wings._

" _Why? It won't live without its wings. It will bleed to death before anything else eats it. Where's the point in letting good meat go to waste?" The older sibling smiled to herself, as her brother's eyes grew wet._

" _I don't want you to hurt it-" The younger Absol began in a feeble voice, but his sister had been baiting him for such an answer. Scooping the moth up in between her lips, the older Absol turned to her younger brother with a cruel smile, as the moth flailed desperately against her teeth._

" _Sister-!"_

 _The older Absol bit the moth in half, and swallowed the tail end, before she spat its upper body into the grassy mud, and crushed the twitching moth beneath a black-padded paw._

" _There you go, little brother. No more pain." The older Absol smiled wickedly at her sibling, as the younger Absol drew himself up in grief._

" _...Why did you kill it, sister?" The feeble male asked._

 _He received her answer with enforced humility, as the older sibling lunged and pinned him to the ground._

" _Because I can, little brother. And because it's fun…" The older Absol's voice never lost its gleeful malice, as she pressed her brother's weeping face into the mud._

 _Tears._

 _Such weakness._

" _You would cry for a moth!?" The older Absol roared as she bit down upon her brother's neck. Twisting her teeth into his skin, the snarling sister wrought a squeal of pain from her younger sibling._

" _To think that you will be the Alpha_ _ _someday_ … How father can even look at you without turning grey in shame astounds me." The older Absol hissed, finally releasing her weaker brother, yet he did not dare lift his belly from the ground._

" _I don't want to be the Alpha…" Moaned the younger Absol. His sister chuckled maliciously, and leaned down to whisper into his ear._

" _I don't want you to be the Alpha either, little brother… I'd make a better Alpha than you." The elder sister mocked, as she licked away her sibling's blood, the same blood that she had drawn in her attack._

" _Why won't father make you the next Alpha? You're stronger than I am…" A snarl interrupted the younger Absol, as his sister rounded on him in fury._

" _I deserve to be the Alpha. Father is the only one who doesn't see it!" Spittle accompanied her livid hiss, as her teeth clenched against some wound deeper than mere pride._

" _Sister… I'm sorry-"_

" _-Don't apologize! Alphas never apologize!" The older sibling spat in anger, as she twisted her brother's ear within her teeth._

" _Sister, please! You're hurting me!" The younger Absol begged, and an enraged growl deafened his captive ear._

 _Yet his sister spat out that imprisoned ear, and freed him from her wrath once again._

" _You are weak." The older sister grudgingly muttered, as she gently nudged her brother to his feet. He buried his sobbing face into her shoulder, as he wept in shame and need against her white fur._

" _Stop crying, little brother. If father sees you crying again, he'll be angry with us both." The older Absol still muttered, but her voice softened with the warning._

" _I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I'm not strong…"_

" _I said stop crying. And don't apologize. That's even worse than tears." The older sister grumbled, as she pulled herself away from her grieving sibling._

" _How can I be an Alpha? How can I be strong?" The younger Absol asked in a despondent voice, as a peal of thunder bowed his shoulders and head with fear._

" _You can stop being afraid of the storm season for starters. This is after all, our favorite season…" The elder sibling looked up at the angry skies, and smiled fondly at the lightning._

" _But it's so dark. And the thunder is so loud…" The younger Absol moaned, as his sister drew near._

" _What about the rains, little brother? Don't you at least like the rain?" She teased, as that malevolent smile spread across her face again._

" _No… I don't like getting wet…" The younger whispered, and his elder sibling laughed._

" _Then come with me, little brother… Let's go cure you of your fear of rain…"_

…

Karst opened her wet eyes.

"Little brother…"

She had failed yet again. The lessons of the past had taught her nothing.

"Solomon… What have I done?" Karst moaned as she curled into herself and wept.

She had pushed him away. She had attacked her dearest friend. She had abandoned him in his trial, all in the vain belief that it would strengthen him.

She should have known better. She, of all people, should have known.

"I'm sorry… little brother…" Karst sobbed.

"I'm sorry… little fish…"

How she hated herself. How could she have repeated the darkest action of her past? How could she have done to Solomon what she had done to her little brother?

"...Karst?" A tiny voice asked in a worried tone.

"Leave me alone." Karst curled into a ball, hiding her watery eyes from the matron's pupil, and stared into the cold nothing she saw beyond the grass.

But the Ralts didn't leave Karst to suffer the guilt and shame alone. The Matron's pupil could see through the Absol's grief.

A pair of tiny arms wrapped around the back of Karst's head, and tiny green cap buried itself in her white mane.

"You're afraid for Solomon, aren't you?" The little one asked. Karst said nothing save for a sniffle, and the Ralts held the Absol's head closer against her frail body.

"He's weak… Solomon is so weak… And I chased him away…" Karst moaned as the Ralts slowly stroked the Absol's ear.

"He's stronger than you think he is, Karst… Solomon is stronger than you know." The Ralts whispered in a soothing voice, and for a moment, Karst's sobbing ceased.

A sound. A giggle. Nasally and shrill.

Soon Karst was laughing, laughing without restraint. Laughing till her sides burned, laughing until the pain in her ribs had gagged her of all breath.

Laughing without mirth. Laughing without hope. Laughing in ridicule of the Ralts's childish reassurance.

"Oh, little one…" Karst wheezed through the pain. The Ralts was looking up at Karst with wounded eyes and a trembling mouth.

"...I wish I knew the world that you see…" Karst began to weep anew, as tears of bitterness welled from between the seams of her tightly sealed eyes.

…

The Alpha approached the water's edge nervously. Every fiber of his being begged him to flee this dreadful fate, but the Pride in his shadow stood tense and alert, as their red eyes followed his every move.

Yet his Pride did not stand ready to defend their Alpha. Rather, his greatest Routers were prepared to prevent his escape.

For the Alpha of the Mightyenas no longer led his Pack…

...Here, in this unfathomable situation, did the Pack lead their Alpa to the water's edge.

-Regardless of his willing consent.

"Gyarados?" The Alpha mustered his strongest voice, and called out to the still river that ran through the heart of his land.

As if summoned from the savage past, an awful shape lifted the river in a swell as it slowly broke free of the water's surface.

The Alpha's Pride fell back with a nervous whining, and the Pack beyond them shuddered in a collective breath.

And though their Alpha stood proud and unmoved before the river's edge…

...The mighty hound's red eyes still widened in fear as the Primordial Killer fixed him in its furious glare.

"You… Summoned me, mighty Serpent?" The Alpha struggled to maintain his dignity in such a fearful address.

The Gyarados gave its answer in a lightning quick strike, and that deadly mouth came short of engulfing the Alpha in a thunderclap of its snapping jaws.

The Alpha's hind legs wobbled, and the shaggy hound fell upon his haunches. Sweet breath could not yet escape the Mightyenas' leader, for crushing death had made its promise known but a whisper away from his quivering nose.

"You are dead. No challenge…" The Serpent hissed, falling back into the water.

Staggering for want of air, gasping in disbelief of his continued life, the Alpha Mightyena lowered his belly into the mud, and drew his tattered ears back against his grizzled mane.

"I submit… Devour me, oh mighty Serpent, but I beg of you: spare my pack of your violent hunger. Let my family live…" The Alpha prostrated himself before the Gyarados, and azure wyrm rumble with a chuckle.

"You are so feeble, little Alpha. So tiny to my stomach. For what reason should I spare your pathetic Pack? Surely you can offer me more than just one bony Alpha…" The Serpent mocked.

"Tribute! My pack will hunt for you-!" The Alpha was quick to add, but the Gyarados's following roar flattened the hound further into the mud.

"AND DEPRIVE ME OF MY QUEST?! FOR WHAT CHALLENGE IS THERE IN LOUNGING WHEN THERE IS PREY TO TEST MY STRENGTH?!" The enraged Gyarados roared, and the hounds before him fell to their bellies in terror.

-Yet the kind creature behind the Serpent's facade, pitied every hound for their fear.

 _Come on, Alpha… Take the bait…_ Solomon prayed, as he pivoted his massive jaws over the Alpha's head.

"...Surely, majestic Serpent, hunting is no challenge for one as mighty as yourself…" The Alpha sensed an opening, a topic for debate. For as well as their martial prowess, clever minds also separated Alpha's from their lesser kin; and even among the savage Mightyena, their Alphas were no different.

"It is true… I still seek a challenge that no prey has yet sate." The Serpent fell into himself, as his brooding eyes grew dim.

"Then if there is no challenge in your kills, perhaps you would instead take pleasure in a contest of wits?" The Alpha humbly suggested.

 _Bingo!_ Solomon secretly rejoiced his opponent's diversionary suggestion.

"What need have I of wits, when my strength is greater than your words?" The Gyarados asked in an angered tone. The Alpha's friendly smile faded.

-Solomon still had an appearance to maintain.

"Oh mighty Serpent, surely you can see that I can offer no other challenge?" The Mightyena faltered in his plea, as his hope of absolution faded.

"...A delegation? I've yet to test myself in such grounds against a witty opponent. But a fresh trial alone does not constitute a challenge..."The crafty Serpent mused, and the startled Alpha lifted his chin from the mud.

"In a hunt, there is a victor and a loser. For the prey, the stakes are life or death. For the predator, the stakes are satisfaction or hunger. So tell me, oh witty Mightyena… What stakes are there in a contest of the minds?" The Gyarados's wicked tone mocked his feeble opponent.

"We must strike an arrangement! An agreement that we both must honor!" The Alpha proposed in a decisive voice. The Serpent only chuckled at this suggestion, as he turned to the crestfallen Mightyena with a glow in his single eye.

"You make me laugh, funny Mightyena… For such humor, I will entertain this little contest. Pray tell, what stakes will you forfeit when I have claimed victory in this game?" The Gyarados asked.

The Alpha swallowed. He didn't like implications that accompanied the Gyarados's confidence.

"You have little interest in our meat, and we have so little of value to a hunter of your magnificence. What would you ask of us in sacrifice, if easy meat does not please your palate?" The Alpha dared ask.

 _Perfect…_ Solomon thought, as he tightened his dragon's face in faux contemplation. After a moment of hard thought, the Gyarados arrived to a stake worthy of his consideration.

"...Your land." The Gyarados announced.

Every Mightyena attending the Circle balked.

"Our land? You cannot be serious…" The Alpha whined, and the Gyarados looked to him in mounting rage.

"I can take your land through might, if need be…" The Gyarados cooly suggested.

"But- We need our land! We need land to hunt! Without our land, we will starve-" The Alpha cried out.

"-And why should I care?" The Gyarados asked in a testy voice. The Alpha's jaw fell in hopelessness, but his Pack depended upon his boldness for their survival.

"Great Serpent, it is not your pity that I request, but rather your reasoning. Think of your ancestors. We are prey to you. If the prey should starve and wane, then so to will the predator-" The Alpha began, but the Gyarados cut him off with a laugh.

"If your pack is to starve and die, then after I have finished eating the last emaciated Mightyena: I will seek new lands to hunt. New lands filled with prey. New lands to render barren in my quest…" The Gyarados growled the last words, as his rage drowned out the mirth with dissatisfaction.

"...And what happens when those lands are rendered barren of prey? Will you seek new lands to purge of life, until all the world is made empty? What will you eat then?" The Alpha found a flaw in the Gyarados's reasoning, and proved quick to exploit it.

"...There will always be something to eat." The serpent hissed, but the Alpha stood unshaken.

" _The seas were purged, the lands laid barren, and even the skies grew empty; all fell to the great wyrms' hunger. Soon the world had nothing left to offer the mightiest of the hunters. Nothing, except hunger. And so the Serpents turned on one another, the thousands feeding on each other across their domains. So hungry and many were they, that it is said; in their final hunt the very oceans turned red, and the sky itself rained their blood upon the land."_ The Alpha quoted the legends for his reply, and the Gyarados became livid with its portent.

"I am the only Gyarados. There will always be plenty for me to eat." The Serpent rumbled above the Alpha, and the Great Hound lowered his head in reverence.

"...I'm sure that the final Gyarados spoken of in the legends thought much the same as you do. And yet he still perished for the continuation of his species." The Alpha struck a chord with his respectful reflection. The Gyarados's eyes narrowed in contemplation, as the mighty serpent regarded the brave hound before him pensively.

"...Perhaps you will provide me with a challenge after all, witty Mightyena…" The Gyarados grudgingly acknowledged his opponent's skill. The Alpha steeled himself against a sigh of relief, and shook himself clean of the mud.

"For your own sake, mighty Gyarados, ask not for our lands-" The Alpha assumed a wisened voice for his address, but the proud serpent before him recognized the ruse.

"Do not patronize me, feeble dog! I now know the stakes of our arrangement!" The Gyarados hissed, invoking a subconscious backpedal from the Alpha.

"Your land is the stakes. Should you lose, I lay claim to all of it, and you and your Pack shall live within it as my prey!" The Gyarados growled in finality, and the Alpha knew better than to argue against the Supreme Hunter's decree.

"And if I should win our contest?" The Alpha boldly stepped forward, his voice no longer intoned with a plea, but rather uttered in a demand.

"Then I will leave your lands, never to return. Nor shall I hunt the migratory herds you claim as your own. You, your Pack, and all of your descendants will never need fear filling the belly of a Gyarados." The Serpent replied. The Alpha was silent for a moment.

"...Should our contest come to a conclusion, where victory has been established by wits, do you promise not to revoke our arrangement by exercising your might?" The Alpha pressed for some form of insurance from the great wyrm, knowing that should the Gyarados favor cheating, there would be little other consequence to deter such deception.

"In the event of your victory, I will restrain myself against violence." The Gyarados grumbled.

"Then we have an arrangement. Now what manner of test should we entertain to establish the wittiest? Perhaps a contest of riddles?" The Alpha knew only confidence now, as he proposed the grounds for their challenge.

The Serpent was fierce and powerful, this much was obvious. But the Alpha had already proven himself the wittier. The fledgling titan clearly had the brawn of legends, but from the contents of their discussion...

...The angry serpent seemed evermore as witty as a child.

But unfortunately for the Alpha, Solomon had closely hidden his guile from his introduction on.

"Riddles? Don't make me laugh. Rehearsing colloquial posers is no contest of wit. No… We will hold a delegation to determine the fate of your lands. Should your reasoning falter in its defense, then I will claim victory. But should my argument fail all logic…" The Serpent trailed off with a tease, for the Alpha's jaw grew slack with dread.

"...Is my proposition unfounded, Alpha?" The Gyarados asked in a poisonously sweet voice, hinting at his con with a bony grin. And such an imposing demeanor left the Alpha of the Mightyenas with only one right answer.

"...Of course not, Gyarados. Your suggestion is most agreeable…" No mannerism of the Alpha could conceal his reluctance.

"Very well. I will return to the Circle at sundown for our contest. I expect only you and your Pride's attendance. Should any other predator be present at our delegation, be they Mightyena or not… I will consider it a violation of our arrangement, and then only one of us will know a challenge tonight…" The Gyarados's amused voice winded down into a dangerous rumble. The Alpha swallowed hard, and when no words rose to contest the Gyarados's warning, the tyrannical serpent sank back into the river deep.

As the minutes passed by without any hint of reprieve, the Alpha of the Mightyenas left the river's edge, and returned to his Pride.

"Send a herald to the Absols. Inform the Packmaster of our plight. Make it known that the Mightyenas will defend their own lands, but in the event of our defeat..." The Alpha's throat tightened as he weighed prospects of the battle before him.

"...Discretely request asylum for our pups. And pray that the Alpha of the Absols feels generous today." The Alpha of the Mightyenas steeled himself against his Pack's growing fear, and turned to face the still water of the river once again.

"Our home is at stake. Our livelihood threatened. Regardless of the the Serpent's challenge and its outcome, we must prepare for war."

…

"Karst!" An eager voice roused the Alpha's daughter from her restless sleep, as a gleeful green cap took hold of the Absol's mane, and proceeded to tug the confused Karst into wakefulness.

"What's going on?" Karst breathed out in alarm, as she struggled against her wounds for her bearings.

"Solomon came back! He's at the river now! The matron just left the den to speak with him! Hurry!" The tiny Ralts pushed herself bodily against Karst's rear ankle, seemingly unable to reign in her patience.

"How long was I asleep?" Karst began to fret, as she fought her stiff legs for dictation.

"Not very long. Only a few hours. Now hurry!" The Ralts begged, giving up her fruitless attempt at forcibly hastening the much larger Absol.

"He's back already?!" Karst discovered her haste in panic.

A war was not decided in the span of a few hours. And considering the length of Solomon's aquatic journey from the Sandy Glen, Karst's goofy fish could not have been present within the Circle for more than an hour.

"What's going on?!" Karst gasped in concern as the she and the Ralts bounded off towards the river.

"You'll see, Karst. You'll see." The Ralts giggled euphorically.

…

"YOU WHAT?!"

The livid shout of the Audino greeted Karst and the Ralts as they approached the river's edge.

"I made an arrangement with the Alpha of the Mightyenas. We will negotiate the territories of the Circle tonight at sundown." Solomon stated in a level voice. The Ralts placed both tiny hands across her mouth in order to stifle her giggles, as Karst drew short of the bank in shock.

-An _arrangement?!_

"I can't believe this… I don't believe this…" The Healer hissed from the shoreline.

"Believe it." Solomon rumbled, and the Audino went wild with a conniption.

"YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO START A WAR! YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO RECLAIM MY HOME! NOT NEGOTIATE FOR A SLIVER OF MY LAND!" The Audino screamed at the testy Gyarados, and all Solomon offered her in response was a weary sigh.

"I have reason to suspect that you'll receive far more than a sliver, Healer. But that all depends on your own ability to negotiate." Solomon grumbled.

Karst's jaw dropped.

Only Solomon could take something as straightforward as a battle, and turn it into a needlessly complex device…

...All so that others wouldn't be injured by his actions.

"...You treacherous snake…" The Audino was far from content with Solomon's solution. Trembling with rage before the mightiest predator known, the petite Healer seemed almost comical in her scolding of the colossal monstrosity.

"I will not kill." Solomon glared down at the Healer with a conviction firm enough to weather her frustration. And the Healer could only scream in unintelligible fury at the calm serpent's cool utterance.

"You are Gyarados! You have every weapon that evolution ever designed at your disposal! You are the embodiment of dominance achieved through destruction! WHY WON'T YOU BE A GYARADOS!?" The Healer was beside herself in incomprehensible rage.

"...I'm more than just a weapon, _Healer…_ " Solomon spat, finally losing his patience. The Audino was rendered speechless by his retort, as she could only flounder beneath the serpent's one-eyed glare.

"...Sol?" The Healer's silence gave Karst the opportunity to address her friend. Solomon drew a great breath of which to calm himself, before the cautious serpent paid heed to his friend's hesitant voice.

Solomon said not a word when he turned to Karst, but the sorrow in his eye betrayed the wound he tried to guard from her.

"...I'm- I'm…" Karst staggered over her apology, as the tightening of Solomon's jaw told her of his rebuttal.

"...I'm glad you're okay." Karst finished lamely, and the blue serpent before her released his pent up breath.

"...I'm sorry Karst. I didn't mean to insult you…" Solomon murmured, as his own guilt for their prior exchange returned to haunt him.

Karst swallowed her tears, and tried to repress her shame.

Solomon had said something ignorant, this much was true. But her goofy fish's intent for such a naive declaration had never been malicious. Her poor Solomon had been thrown against a wall, as those closest to him attempted to strip him of his morality.

...And when he was cornered and afraid, even the mighty Gyarados would blindly defend his convictions to the bitter end.

"Sol-" Karst began in a shaken voice, denying his apology on the premise of her own guilt.

But the angry Healer would not hear anymore of their sniveling.

"Enough of this! You have not honored your promise, Solomon! You have not repaid your debt-!" The Healer began, and the conflicted serpent rounded on her with a hiss.

"-No. I have not repaid my debt _yet_. That will be settle tonight in the Circle. I did not promise to fight a war for you, Healer. I promised to return your home." Solomon rumbled as his own volatile rage surfaced, and the wise Healer knew better than to aggressively trifle with a compromised Gyarados.

"You will have your home back. This I have promised. But I will not displace those who also hold a claim to the Circle. I will not be a tyrant who exiles others from their homes. I will not do to other what was done to you." Solomon growled, and a deathly silence filled the air. All present eyes fell upon the serpent in disbelief, as every individual conviction was shaken by this latest of vehement claims.

"...You are no Gyarados…"

Only one frustrated voice could render sound throughout this calm.

Only the Healer could find the wind of which to breach this still.

"I am _Solomon._ Not _Gyarados_." The Serpent was both quick and furious in his reply. The Audino let loose a short, demeaning laugh, as she shook her head in ridicule at the impossible giant before her.

"That is being made clearer by the day, _Solomon…"_ The Healer spat.

"Calm yourself, Healer. We still hold an advantage. The Alpha of the Mightyenas is awaiting us in the Circle with only his Pride for council. He does not know that I am bringing my own council." Solomon announced, as he lifted his enervated gaze from the simmering Healer and fixed his heavy eyes on the awestruck Huntress.

"Karst? Are you well enough to travel?" Solomon asked in a soft voice.

"I'm… I-" Karst was staggered by this sudden turn.

"I need your assistance, Karst. I need someone who knows the Mightyena, someone they respect, someone who can talk to them on their level. I can play charades all day as the Mighty Gyarados, but I cannot fairly mediate from such an intimidating role." Solomon's voice was gentle in his plea, and his unclouded eye was resolute when it met Karst's startled gaze.

"...Of course I'm well enough to travel. Provided that my goofy fish doesn't mind ferrying me again." Karst began to giggle as a relieved Solomon turned back towards the fuming Healer.

"I guarantee you a fair delegation. I will keep you protected should the proceedings turn foul. And if all else fails, if peace truly cannot be realized…" Solomon shuddered at the possibility of his failing.

"...Then I will restore your home to you, even by war if need be." Solomon swore himself to the Audino in a shaken voice, and the furious Healer glared up at him with severe eyes.

"...So you intend to level the playing field?" The Audino asked in a terse voice.

"Should our venture prove successful, I will defend your home from any future deceptions perpetrated by the Mightyena or the Grave Stretch's other Packs. I am your friend, Healer. I will not abandon you." Solomon promised, and at last, the Healer knew reassurance.

"...I know who you are, Solomon. I can't say that I'm happy with this turn of events. As a matter of fact, I am far from _happy…_ " The Audino's teeth clenched together as she swallowed her anger.

"...But I will try to establish your peace, before I resort to war." The Audino muttered.

"Then it's settled. Hurry. Gather what treasures cannot be replaced from your den. We must make for the Circle before sundown. You, Karst, and the little one are all coming with me." Solomon began to lower himself into the river, so that the wounded Karst could tread the water above his crest for an easy mounting.

"This is so exciting! I've never left the Sandy Glen before!" The Ralts cried out in jubilance, and the wary Matron was quick to temper her pupil's curiosity with an edict.

"You will stay upon Gyarados's head at all times. Your feet will not touch the soil of the Circle, until we have insured its security. Stay close to Solomon, and don't you dare leave my sight." The Audino was both cold and decisive in her orders, and the pupil's glee was diminished by a nervous uncertainty. Taking her Ralts by the hand, the Matron led her pupil off towards the Den in order to gather their most precious possessions together for transit, leaving both the Absol and the Gyarados alone together at the river's edge.

Solomon rose from the river, with Karst perched firmly atop his crown. The wonder-weary Absol could only stare down in awe at the blue armored brow beneath her, as she announced her incredulity in a dreamy articulation.

"What are we doing, Solomon?" Karst's voice sounded faint, and the serpent below her rumbled with a chuckle.

"What are we doing, Karst?" Solomon slowly shook his head in amusement, before he settled his jaw upon the sandy shore, and awaited the Healer's return.

"We're making a home, Karst. A home for the both of us." Solomon answered Karst's question in a gentle voice, and the onset of a sinusy giggle above him told of Karst's waxing elation.

…

The Alpha of the Mightyenas awaited the Serpent upon the northern bank of the Circle. Tidings from the Packmaster of the Absols had only recently reached the Alpha Mightyena's ears, and their portents did not bode well.

The Packmaster had refused them aid, and now faced with exodus from both the Gyarados and the Absols, the Mightyenas had become a faction with nothing to lose. With their options limited and their survival cast in doubt, the Pack had agreed to fight to the death for their homes.

-Even against so mighty a predator as the Gyarados.

But one feeble hope still persisted. And this hope weighed more heavily upon the Alpha Mightyena's shoulders than it did upon upon his entire Pack. There was still one recourse void of bloodshed and death…

...But that hope would prove vain if the Alpha Mightyena failed to outwit the crafty Gyarados.

The falling sun crested upon the treeline, and its pale light glowed feebly through the rising storm clouds. Distant thunder sounded from the horizon, and the Gyarados's return was expected at any moment.

"Is the Pack sequestered in the raw lands?" The Alpha sought an answer from his Lead Router.

"Every raiding Pride and hunting party are within a howl's breadth. As instructed, they are positioned downwind of the Circle. Unless the Gyarados can smell a hound after his scent has traveled the world over, he should not suspect a thing." The Lead Router reported.

"What of our pups? Have they been secluded as well?" The Alpha asked.

"The dams and pups are well hidden within the raw land's foliage. We have dispersed them in small groups, and assigned each to a specific territory. Should the Gyarados resort to violence, the majority of the mothers and our children should persist throughout its attack. For tonight, at least." The Lead Router grumbled.

"And what of my Beta and my son? Have they a Pride to defend them?" The Alpha pressed. The Lead Router inclined his head respectfully, and offered his Alpha an answer.

"I assigned two Prides to care for your mate and your pup. It may deprive us of an offensive element, but your heir should be secure." The Lead Router reported.

"Good. Then there is but one last detail for me to assign." The Alpha murmured.

"What would you ask of your Pride, Alpha?" The Lead Router led the bowing of manes as the Alpha's Pride paid homage to their leader.

"I have a duty for my Lead Router. A duty of the utmost importance." The Alpha announced, and the grizzled gray mane of the Lead Router lifted from its incline.

"You will depart from the Circle, and join my Beta and my heir in the raw lands. Should the Gyarados's contest turn to war, you are hereby charged with both their defense, and my son's upbringing. Regardless of his father's fate, I expect him to claim his ancestral birthright, and lead our Pack as its future Alpha." The Alpha Mightyena ordered, and the Lead Router rested a pair of proud eyes upon his Alpha.

"Am I to instruct him in both the ways of the hunt and in the ways of guile, as I instructed you, pup?" The Lead Router asked with an amused tone.

"I can think of no greater teacher for my son than that of my own father. Go now. The hour draws near." The Alpha gave his father a fond grin, before his Lead Router made away for the raw lands.

"I hope that we will not require a new Alpha for many more rains. Farewell, my Alpha. May your prowess prove all the greater." The grizzled Lead Router bade his son a cheer, just before the greying hound disappeared into the dense jungle that surrounded the savanna known as the Circle.

"...Let's hope that your lessons prepared me for this, old dog." The Alpha ruefully murmured to himself, as his smile faded away into a look of grim determination.

"Alpha. The Gyarados's scent is on the wind." One of the Alpha's Pride reported. The Alpha drew a deep breath through his snout, and detected the stench of seaweed that denoted the arrival of an oceanic Gyarados. A scent that would have proved elusive had the Gyarados approached the Circle submerged.

"He exposes himself this time. What in the name of the hunt is he up to now-?" The Alpha froze as a new intake of breath revealed more than just a Gyarados's scent.

The dusty odor of dried blood, entangled within the mixed perfumes of smoke and berries.

The sweet smell of a hairless child, tinged with a peculiar note indigenous only to the Rose Hills.

And the spicy hint of a of a white furred Huntress, mingling within a bouquet of Lilligant blooms.

"He does not come alone…" The Alpha murmured in dread, as this fresh portent bore with it no end of uncertainties.

…

"We're here." Solomon informed his passengers, when he rounded a bend in the tributary, and the treeline gave away to the level grasslands of the Circle.

The Audino peered past Solomon's azure crest with forlorn eyes, and gazed at the empty land that had once served as her home.

"...It's so quiet now." The Audino murmured in a saddened undertone, and her pupil moved to take her mentor's quivering mitt.

"It seems that the Mightyena have upheld their end of the bargain." Karst stated in a dry voice, when every breath of the wind proved clear of a Pack's scent.

"Good." Solomon rumbled, slowing his advance into the Circle.

"Let's hope they're not overly upset about my company." Solomon's voice sounded deep and wary. Karst looked down at her friend with worry.

"Are we all ready?" Solomon asked softly, as a Pride of Mightyena on the northern bank came into view.

"As ready as I'll ever be." The Healer muttered in a voice of iron.

"Karst?" Solomon pressed.

"I'm ready, Sol." Karst reported in a calm voice.

"Little one?" Solomon finished his role call.

The Ralts was silent. Thus far, this journey had been anything but exciting. For the Matron's pupil, it had been aught but terrifying.

"Remember what I said, little one. Solomon will keep you safe." The Audino's voice softened when she addressed her nervous pupil.

"Okay. Let's do this." Solomon straightened the arch of his neck, and assumed his most callous of demeanors. The Audino folded her arms across her sternum, as an icy glare worked its way into her liquid blue eyes. Karst rose from her belly in a regal stance, and held herself both haughty and self-assured before the waiting Pride.

...While the little one wedged herself against the base of Solomon's crest, and hid her shaking form within its forked shadow.

"You've returned, Gyarados." The Alpha was ever so respectful in his greeting, but his eyes darted between the peculiar company that dismounted from the serpent's crown.

"...And you've brought…" The Alpha stumbled for words as he sought a title to define the Gyarados's strange companions.

The Alpha knew the feminine pair before him. Both were minor legends within the Core Delta.

One was the ancient Healer of the Sandy Glen, the most proficient practitioner of medicinal craft known within the Grave Stretch.

And the other was the Absols' fallen Lead Router, their fearsome Alpha Slayer, and the exiled Daughter of the Packmaster himself.

"I brought my council, Alpha. Just as you have." Solomon rumbled.

"Such… strange council you keep, Gyarados. Matron?" The Alpha inclined his head towards the Audino with a wary gesture.

"Dog." Spat the Healer in response. Unsullied by her hostility, the Alpha then directed his tidings towards Absols' exiled Lead Router.

"Absol." A deep bow accompanied the Alpha Mightyena's address, and the Absols' exiled Lead Router only smirked with a chuckle in her reply.

"And where is the Ralts? If my nose does not deceive me, then a descendant of the Rose Hills is also present." The Alpha assumed a teasing voice when he pointed his snout at Solomon's crest.

"I keep a diverse council, Alpha. As you may have noticed." The Gyarados rumbled with an impatient intonation.

"Of course, Mighty Gyarados. I did not mean to offend." The Alpha Mightyena quickly reconciled for his boldness, but that boldness had exposed a peculiarity.

As every Alpha knew, there was a reason behind unusual situations. And to the Alphas, every reason discerned existed for their exploitation.

"Enough of the questions, Mightyena. You will conduct your proceedings with myself and the Audino. Unless of course, you wish to debate with the Gyarados _directly…_ " Karst's mocking tone drew the Pride's attentions onto her.

"It's so good to see that you're alive, Absol. We heard from the Packmaster himself that you had perished…" The Alpha Mightyena immediately probed for a weakness, but the Absols' exiled Lead Router had none to show.

"I'm not surprised that my father thought me dead. The Packmaster was far too busy fleeing the Gyarados in terror to pay any heed to his bleeding child." Karst giggled maliciously when she taunted the Alpha Mightyena for his failed insult.

"And you, Healer? It's been so long since the Circle has seen your kind within its boundaries. Does the air smell the same as it did, back when you and your kin lived here?" The Alpha Mightyena offered his pleasant tone now to the Audino, as he pressed her for a weakness in turn.

"Apart from the reek of wet dogs, my home smells much the same as it always has." The Audino replied in a cool voice.

Neither the Audino or the Absol had betrayed a weakness, yet the Gyarados had faltered before either of them, when the explanation for his council had proved lacking.

Something was clearly afoot, and the Alpha Mightyena sensed that among this strange gathering, the Mighty Serpent served one of the opposed as a pawn.

"If I may request clarification, seeing as this is a most… unseemly event, how did the three of you convene?" The Alpha Mightyena asked.

"The Gyarados was wounded. I mended his eye. In return for my aid, he accepted… a _challenge_ on my behalf." The Audino smiled when she responded to the Alpha's query.

"And what of the exile? She seems to have been tended by your craft, Matron. I thought that you'd rather die than heal another Absol. At least, that's what you stated when the Absols left you for dead in the Circle all those seasons ago..." The Alpha's voice grew mocking in its candor, as his Pride grew wary for their Leader's reckless courage.

"What makes you think that I am without my own form of persuasion, Mightyena?" The coy voice of the Absol's Lead Router answered the Alpha's question with a laugh.

"Indeed. It must be quite the persuasion to have tamed a Gyarados…" The Alpha pressed his luck, in his search for an answer to this unusual situation.

...And the Gyarados's calm silence told volumes to the clever ears of an Alpha.

This was no Gyarados.

No Supreme Predator would tolerate the insinuation of having been tamed.

This Gyarados was a puppet, but what strings bound him to the pair of dissimilar females before the Alpha Mightyena had yet to have been discerned.

"So is this to be a game of wits, or was I misled to assume that the Gyarados sought entertainment?" The Alpha grinned at the trio arranged against him, and the guttural rumble born from the serpent's throat reminded the Alpha that there were limits.

"You were not misled, dog. We have come to brandish our wits, and parley for the fate of the Circle. However, should our mediation dissolve without first establishing a treaty…" The Audino paused in her smug address to look pointedly up at the snarling Gyarados.

"...We will be forced to settle our dispute in a fashion far more familiar with your usual means. So please, _do_ continue to aggravate my very large and unstable friend. I'm rather curious to see how quickly your kind adapts to serving as _prey…_ " The Audino ended her threat with a cruel smirk, and every Mightyena in attendance stiffened with dread of its fulfillment.

"If I may offer a bit of friendly advice, Alpha?" Karst's sensual voice sounded far more conceited than friendly, yet the Absol's deferential use of the Alpha's title harkened to the allegiance that her kind shared with his.

"...Do not make the same mistake that my father did, unless you favor the prospect of begging the Arcanine for a new home." Karst's voice tittered with a cloying sweetness, and the Alpha Mightyena recalled his caution for this deputation.

"...Very well. If the introductions have concluded, then let us proceed with the delegations." The Alpha Mightyena rested upon his haunches, and bade both his Pride and his opponents to do the same, all in his unavailing effort of providing a relaxed precept for this evening's moot.

…

"...Do you think that they've made any headway yet?" The Ralts asked Solomon in a tentative voice, as the Gyarados beneath her struggled to control his ragged breathing.

"They had better have agreed to some kind of terms by _now…_ " The serpent spat in a livid voice. The Matron's pupil immediately stemmed her fearful questions. The delegations were but a few hours old, and the Gyarados's inherent rage at the lack of progress had excused him from the debacle.

Three hours of arguing. Three hours of pointing fingers and reciting crimes. Three hours of petty bickering and foolhardy posturing.

Three hours had passed since the delegation's convention, and not one topic had been discussed to alleviate the dispute at hand. Instead, every spoken word had brought them all further from a solution.

Solomon was at patience's end with the so-called proceedings, and after a particularly venomous disagreement had turned the discussions from establishing a treaty to inciting personal attacks: the agitated Gyarados had roared himself hoarse with frustration, before razing the southern bank of the Circle's river in remedial fury.

While Solomon's passionate display had silenced the night and curbed the delegation of the Circle with terror, the newly enhumbled congress was not to last.

Realizing that his intolerant and violent second nature only threatened the stability of the debate, Solomon had left Karst and the Healer to fend for their claims, while he and the Ralts sought solace away from the ceaseless verbal conflict.

Yet despite the distance that separated the shaken pair from the argument, the raised voices and snarls of the congress still assaulted the ears of both the wyrm and the Ralts.

"Looks like everything's going well…" Solomon growled when he spied the Healer cutting an Alpha's snarl short with an aggressive gesture, before both she and Karst turned their backs on the infuriated Pride, and marched their frustrated way over towards the awaiting serpent.

"Have you two settled the pissing contest yet? Or have we gone back to comparing the sizes of our genitalia again?" Solomon hissed as the sullen Karst and shaking Healer approached him.

"We _might_ have made some progress, if someone hadn't abandoned us to destroy the bleeding savanna!" The Healer spat right back in Solomon's face, and the volume of the Gyarados's following roar revealed that he was far from calm yet.

"I _tried_ to get you to discuss the purpose of our being here! But someone is a little too grudge-happy to put aside her past for a night-" Solomon glared at the Healer with venom dripping from his eyes.

"-And someone is little too fond of reminding the Mightyena that her species is superior!" Solomon rounded on the balking Karst, as chords of spittle flew from his frothing maw.

"We have to be assertive, Solomon. Force is the only language that these hounds understand. They barely respect Karst, and they think of me as a _joke_." The Audino was not sullied by Solomon's accusations. She met his rabid glare with her fearless and impatient eyes.

" _You_ are the one that they fear. _You_ are the one that they respect more than their own Alpha. And while the destruction of my _home_ has most certainly reinforced that respect, you have done little else but snivel during the delegations." The Healer growled up at the enraged serpent, as she was no less disappointed in him as he was with her.

And not even the snarling jaws of a Gyarados screaming certain death scant inches from her nose could coerce the angry Healer.

"Where was this aggression when we needed it?! Where was this aloof confidence when our enemies had us by the throat?!" The Audino slapped the Gyarados's bony lips in fury when his bellow wore down into a ragged panting.

"Sol, listen to me." Karst assumed a level voice for her address, but the severity of her plea was still audible to all present.

"We need you at our backs. The Matron is right. The Mightyena do not fear a crippled Alpha Slayer, and they have little respect for a disgraced Healer." Karst's worried eyes enforced a self conscious reflection from the serpent, and the compromised Solomon struggled to even his turbulent emotions.

"...We cannot make a home without you, Sol. We can't win this fight without your support." Karst pressed urgency upon her tormented friend, and the Gyarados let loose another shriek of rage as the personal battle with his second nature escalated.

"...Fine." Solomon hissed, when his spent breath had rendered both him and beast within faint.

"I'm fine." The serpent growled to the pair of females beneath his prow, doing little to assure them of his return to sanity, yet inspiring them with hope all the same.

"We've taken a short recess. I'm sure that our adversaries are laughing themselves to death over this turn, but when we return to the moot, _we need you to assert yourself, Solomon_." The Audino ended with a harsh whisper.

"Just glare at them, Sol. Lick your chops and growl a little should the Pride start their mob antics again. Just remind the Mightyena that their Alpha doesn't call all the shots in the Circle. If you do that much, then the Healer and I can ram our agenda down their throats. But as it stands now, we have to constantly defend ourselves from their attacks. Don't give them the opportunity to attack us again. Otherwise, we'll never settle anything here but a _war_." Karst finished her plea with a warning, and with the threat of that war looming in his future, Solomon once more made himself stern.

"How long of a recess did you request?" Solomon asked the Healer in a cold voice.

"Half an hour-" The Audino began, but Solomon cut her off with a rumbling growl.

"-The recess is over _now_." Solomon hissed, and took the lead as his startled council returned to the frontlines.

"Mighty Gyarados! Have your friends already finished licking their wounds?" The Alpha Mightyena jeered at their approach, and his emboldened Pride cackled at their leader's jab.

"And there's that cold look of determination again, only ever worn so valiantly by the prey before its final momen-" The Alpha sneered at the Healer, but his attack was silenced by the Gyarados's own.

Without a warning bellow, or even so much as a hardening of his eyes, Solomon scattered the Pride with a sweeping blow of his tail. Thrown from the land and cast into the wind, the startled hounds' wits were replaced by shock when they crashed against the grass in utter disarray.

"Enough of this mindless prattling." Solomon growled in a Gyarados's voice, and every eye of the circle beheld him with fear.

"We _will_ discuss the borders of the Circle _now_. Or else these words will be the last that you'll ever hear again." Solomon spat to the Alpha, who made himself prone with a whimper before the furious Gyarados.

"Well done, Sol…" A mystified Karst murmured in an undertone, as the fearful hounds beseeched the Gyarados for mercy.

The Audino stepped ahead of the Gyarados, and cast her figure over the groveling Mightyena in a display of joint-dominance.

"The terms that we impose includes your Pack's immediate relocation from the Circle. You are permitted to hunt the surrounding lands, but the Circle will return to its original purpose. You will not harm those who come here seeking aid, and you will not stalk those who leave the Circle's enclosure until three days _after_ their return into the raw lands." The Healer spoke in a decisive voice, and the wary Alpha rose from his prostrate position in the grass to counter her terms with his own.

"Outrageous! The surrounding lands are barren for most of the year, and unless the Packmaster allots us a portion of the Zoroark's territory, we will starve before the next season's rains without our Circle!" The Alpha Mightyena turned to Karst with a meaningful glare, and the Absols' exiled Lead Router could only miff at his less than subtle request.

"I no longer represent the Absols, Mightyena. I cannot negotiate for a redistribution of the lesser Pack's territories." Karst replied. The Alpha Mightyena snorted, and turned back to the Healer.

"Then we must refuse your terms." The Alpha growled.

"Then let me make you this _offer,_ dog-" The Healer spat, and her dangerous tone indicated her lethal intent to the entire fold.

"-Healer!" Solomon roared from her back, reminding the Healer that war was to be their last resort.

Twitching with fury at both Solomon's interruption, and yet another display of his weakness, the Healer gnashed her teeth at the Alpha Mightyena in rage.

Solomon had revealed his unwillingness to commit to warfare, and the Alpha Mightyena was clever enough to notice it.

"An interesting council you keep, _Healer…_ " The Alpha Mightyena directed his growl to the Audino, indicating his intuition with a smile.

The Gyarados was definitely a pawn, of this the Alpha was now certain. But though he had pinned the mastermind of this charade, the Alpha Mightyena had yet to determine what binds linked the Gyarados's will to the Audino's service.

"...You know, Gyarados, this fat pink hag makes for a most unusual Pride member. Surely one of your hunting prowess can do better…" The Alpha sought the strings that tied this powerful monster to such a feeble creature, but his suspicions of their mutual service to one another were dispelled the instant Solomon let slip his connections.

"This _fat pink hag_ is my friend, _you insignificant little dog!"_ Solomon came down upon the shrieking Alpha with a fearsome vengeance, and the Gyarados's maddened strike would have proved fatal, had not one of the gathered harbored such compassion for his innocence's preservation.

"SOL!" Karst screamed his name just as the Gyarados's jaws closed around the Alpha Mightyena, and after a stunned moment of horror, the priorly furious and now terrified serpent spat out his unmauled prize.

How feeble he seemed now, as his rapid and shallow breathing betrayed the turmoil that afflicted him, while his lone red eye widened in stark panic.

"I didn't- I didn't mean-" Solomon was breathless with sick, and the Audino set aside her own fury to console him.

...And even though he lay upon the ground, gasping in fear and dripping with a serpent's saliva, the Alpha of the Mightyena still heard the weakness born from a serpent's terrified voice.

"...W-what are you?" The Alpha breathed out in his own shock, as he gazed up at the the quaking serpent that crumbled above him.

"Alpha. I request a moment alone with you." Karst's voice alone bore strength throughout the moot, and the aloof Huntress imposed her will with an iron resolve. Shaken by his near death experience, and deprived of his dignity before his Pride; the Alpha Mightyena found his feet, and forfeited to Karst's request without question.

"Walk with me." The calm Absol ordered of the Alpha Mightyena, and his quivering form made to follow in the Huntress's steady footprints.

Solomon's desperate eyes tried to catch Karst's gaze with a fervent apology, but the cool Absol couldn't afford to acknowledge his frailty right now.

"It seems that we find ourselves at an impasse, Alpha." Karst spoke as confidently as her father would, when he addressed his lesser Alphas.

"...What is going on, Absol? That is no Gyarados! That is no predator!" The Alpha hissed as their stroll brought them out of the moot's earshot.

"He is Gyarados, Alpha. Your present condition confirms this. But he is not only a Gyarados either." The Absol remarked in a level tone.

"He could've killed me. He could have crushed my entire Pride in his first attack! He has the power to kill every member of my Pack! Why do I still live?! _Why has he not killed every member of my Pack?!"_ The Alpha gasped, as his panic conflicted and mingled with the audacity of this dilemma.

"...Because before he is Gyarados, he is first Solomon." The Absol answered the Alpha in a murmur.

"...And what is a _Solomon_?" The Alpha asked, regaining an impatient measure of himself when confronted by the Absol's vague riddle.

"...I've been trying to figure that out, ever since I first met him. Back when he was a feeble Magikarp. Back before he became a livid Gyarados." Karst replied in that calm voice, regardless of the personal weakness her admission insinuated.

"...So the rumors are true then. The Packmaster's daughter gave herself over to the meekest of prey." The Alpha Mightyena sneered at the Absol beside him. Karst smiled to herself when their stride brought the pair of predators to the river's edge, and both adjusted their direction to keep pace with the meandering water.

"Yes. I befriended a Magikarp. I protected the feeblest of the prey. And it looks as if my blasphemous compassion has worked to my benefit, wouldn't you say, Alpha?" Karst grinned at her opponent, who stiffened at her unshaken resolve.

"...I'm not sure if I'd consider those wounds beneficial, Absol. Or your status as an outcast among your own kind-" The Alpha began on a mocking note, but the giggling of his opponent rendered him silent.

"I was branded an outcast before Solomon named me. And these wounds are nothing compared to the boons of his friendship." Karst smiled down at the Alpha Mightyena as though he were but an ignorant child, and her confident demeanor despite the acknowledgement of her flaws brought no end of confusion to the vicious Alpha.

"...Named you?" The Alpha asked in a curious elocution, and the Absol beside him halted in her regal gait to stand proudly before his pensive gaze.

"I am known as _Karst_ to my friends, Alpha. Just as the Gyarados is known as _Solomon_ to his friends." Karst announced, and the quizzical look of the Alpha deepened.

"And what value does a name assign you, _Absol?"_ The Alpha sneered, learning aught but ridicule in his private musings.

"Before Solomon named me, I was called Lead Router. I was called the Packmaster's daughter. I was called the Alpha Slayer. But these were only my titles and their roles, not who I was." Karst met the Alpha's mocking leer with that peculiar confidence.

...A confidence only ever displayed by the wise…

"Solomon saw who I was. Solomon knew that I was more than just the Absols' Lead Router. Solomon knew that I was more than just the Packmaster's daughter. Solomon knew that there was something more to me, than just a series of titles and their roles." Karst's knowing smile left the Alpha beside her in sudden doubt of his own convictions, and the peculiar distinction of a name, as well as its lack of application to his own existence, had left a mark on the Alpha Mightyena's pride.

"Solomon named what he saw in me Karst, and in becoming Karst, I have begun to see the world through Solomon's eyes." Karst murmured her discovery in a whisper, and the Alpha Mightyena had to strain his ears to hear her.

"What a vantage point that must afford you, Absol... To see the world through the eyes of a Gyarados?" The Alpha began in a tone of awe, but his remark soon turned derisive in its enunciation, and he laughed at the foolish Absol who stood unashamed by the river's edge.

"...To see the world through the eyes of a _Mighty Magikarp!"_ The Alpha cackled, but his scorn would not tarnish the Absol's demeanor. With an amused sigh, Karst wrote off his insult as a weak utterance of the naive.

"Solomon has a strength that you cannot possibly conceive of. Solomon is even stronger than I gave him credit for. As a Magikarp or as a serpent, Solomon has always been mightier than a mere Gyarados." Karst chuckled at the bemused expression that overwhelmed the Alpha Mightyena's mirth.

"...So what of this delegation? What do I risk in denying you, the Healer, and the Gyarados?" The Alpha treaded carefully now. Karst's invulnerability had swayed him past his original doubts, and now he sought direct answers for the questions that he had priorly feared to voice aloud.

"Solomon does not wish to slay your Pack, Alpha. The Audino, on the other hand, is positively itching for an excuse to incite a war. And as for me?" Karst giggled at the shocked expression on the Alpha's face.

"-I just want to ensure that Solomon doesn't come to regret his decision, regardless of whether he chooses to support a war, or to foster a peace." Karst fixed her eyes on the Alpha's own, and pressured him for an understanding.

"...And why would the Gyarados spare us? Why would he protect his enemies from himself?" The Alpha growled, growing frustrated with the endless contradictions.

"I told you, Solomon has a strength that you know nothing of, and I have only just begun to realize the extent of its scale. But if you still question that strength, Alpha: then ask yourself this…" Karst's coy voice resurfaced, and the Alpha's curiosity held him in enraptured with her answer, despite the demeaning intentions of his previous jabs.

"...Do you know of anyone who possess the necessary strength to defeat a Gyarados?" Karst asked, and the Alpha grew silent as his knowledge of such a powerful being provided him with nothing for an answer.

"...I only know of one such individual who possess that magnitude of power. I only know one creature who can defeat a legendary Gyarados in battle. And his name is _Solomon."_ Karst whispered her friend's name in reverence, and the Alpha opposed to her drew back with a start.

"He is the only force preventing your Pack's annihilation. He is the only reason as to why you still draw breath. Solomon is the only reason that life still persists in the Core Delta, and not even a Gyarados has the might to contest him." Karst declared, and the Alpha found his trembling haunches planted firmly on the river's bank for want of support.

...It was all so backwards. It was all so nonsensical. It was all so childish…

...And yet…

. _..It somehow made sense._

"...I cannot forsake the Circle's bounty to the Audino. My Pack will die off without its sustenance. You must must make this understood to the Healer! _You must make her see reason!"_ The Alpha now begged his fellow predator for aid, and the merciful Karst answered his plea with a word of advice.

"Then the best way for you to make your case to the Healer, Alpha… Is to explain your situation to Solomon. After all, he doesn't _only_ speak on the Audino's behalf…" And with that incredible revelation, Karst turned on a heel and made to return to the waiting congress; while the Alpha Mightyena swallowed his incredulity, and scampered after the White Huntress, placing his every remaining faith in her distant blue hope.

…

"Are you quite alright, Solomon?" Karst approached her lonely friend unimpeded by her own reservations. The miserable wyrm had once again forsaken the delegations, and return to the river to loathe all that he was, as he struggled to justify his existence to himself.

"...I can't do it, Karst…" The mighty serpent whimpered.

Solomon had never once voiced defeat. Some measure of resolve had always permeated his character, but here in the waters of the Circle, did Karst's dearest friend finally meet his match.

" _...A monster can't make peace…"_ Solomon's voice tremble with the onset of a sob, and Karst lay herself down at the river's edge when her dearest friend's tears began to fall.

"What is a monster, Solomon?" Karst asked in a soft voice, and the wretched eyes of the Gyarados sealed tightly against his tears, as he choked on his self-damning answer.

"...Do monsters know of remorse? Do monsters know of regret?" Karst asked, her own eyes wetting as she recalled the fateful night that seemed so distant in her memories.

That awful and cherished night, when her dearest friend had saved her from herself...

"Do you remember what you taught me about monsters, Sol? Do you remember what you said to me all those months ago, when I came sniveling back to you with a hopeless apology?" Karst's voice shook with passion as she recounted his loving words.

" _Monsters don't feel regret, Absol. Monsters don't know guilt or remorse."_ Karst whispered to her troubled friend, and the meek serpent's eyes opened to behold her in waxing awe.

"You're not a monster, Solomon... You're the most beautiful and loving creature that I've ever known…" Karst began to weep, and her dearest friend…

...An Absol's goofy fish…

...Left his reclusive prison in the river, to hold and to comfort his beloved Karst.

"...How can I make peace, Karst? How can I get them to put aside their hatred?" Solomon begged Karst for her council, and the caring Absol was quick to provide.

"Remember who you are, Sol. You're the one who turned the Absols' cruel Lead Router into a loving friend. You're the one who made the wise Healer see the reason behind your selfless compassion. You're the one who conquered a Gyarados to save the ones you cherished…" Karst's voice wavered as she approached the verdict of her council.

"...So just be you, Sol. Just be the loving fish that I know. You'll show them a reason against their hatred. Just like you've done before. I have faith in you, Sol… faith that you can do anything that you devote yourself to." Karst whispered to her dearest friend, as the Gyarados around her loosened his embracing coils, and rose to face the moot as Karst's weary, perplexed, patient, and pensive Solomon.

…

The entire congress tensed when the serpent and the Absol returned to the delegations, but if the Pride had been fearful of the Gyarados before, they were now even more perturbed by the strange creature that slithered its hulk into their fold.

There was no hostility or anger worn upon the Mighty Serpent's face, and though he loomed tall above them all, his crown seemed bowed by some great burden.

"I wish to try again." The Gyarados announced in a tired voice, belying his apparent youth with a brooding responsibility.

Neither the Alpha Mightyena or the Healer seemed shocked by this sudden transformation, and both lay their heavy eyes upon the Gyarados in expectation.

"The Healer has requested the Circle to serve as a land of healing, but to my understanding, such a land of peace would deprive the Mightyena of their livelihoods. Explain to me the makeup of the Circle, and be specific about its significance to all who call it home." The serpent's voice was weary, but determined; and though it seemed odd for such a mighty predator to express such concerns, the Alpha Mightyena took the Gyarados's display in stride, and indicated that the Healer was to speak first with a stiff nod of his head towards her.

"...When my family lived within the Circle, we labored tirelessly to make it a sanctuary for the wounded. During the dry seasons, we Audino cultivated berry fields in the river's fertile bank, when the summer's heat had reduced its mighty flow to a trickling creek." The Healer began, and Solomon listen carefully to the history of this disputed land.

"For generations, we traded our services for prizes and favors. My family grew wealthy with the bounty provided by both the predators and their prey. We offered our services to all, for we knew that alienating the predators would only spell ruin for the sanctity of the Circle." The Audino looked over to Karst, and through her eyes no longer regarded the Huntress with hatred and accusations, the Healer's bitterness for all Absolkind could still be heard in her following words.

"That changed ten storm seasons ago, when the Alpha of the Absols brought his own drowned heir to the healers of the Circle." Angry tears began to well from corners of the Healer's eyes, just as tears of horrid guilt rose to wet the eyes of the Huntress.

"The cub was long dead when the Packmaster delivered his only son to my family, but the Alpha still begged us to save his son's spent life-" Both anger and pain shook the Audino's teeth as she struggled to continue, and the lone Absol in attendance withered away with the shame of her past actions.

"...But there was nothing that we could do. My kind can only mend the wounds of the living, not return the dead unto life." The Audino found a cold steel in her gut, and used its cold edge to inscribe the bloodied words written in her terrible memories for her audience with the serpent.

"...And when we made such known to the Packmaster of the Grave Stretch, he became wild with a maddness. His first Beta had passed away in the care of the Circle only a season before, and the same disease that had ended her life had also deprived him of the means to sire a new cub…" The Audino lowered her hollow eyes from the weeping Karst, and turned to face Solomon with that vacant look.

"...So the Packmaster of the Grave Stretch took his grief out on those who he believed had deceived him. He blamed the Circle for the death of his son and first Beta. My own children were eaten alive as I was mauled and violated beside them... In the Alpha Absol's cruel eyes, such was our just punishment for having failed the Packmaster of the Grave Stretch twice…" The Healer choked, but forced herself to continue.

"...My family was reduced to bones and tatters… I was thrown into the swollen river, and left to die as the Packmaster's heir had. But by some accursed mercy, I did not perish…" The Audino finally discovered a calm in a shuddering intake of breath, and finished relating her story with its priorly summarized conclusion.

"...I don't know why I didn't just give up. I had nothing left to live for. No family, no home, and no hope for either's restoration. But I lingered on, and in seeking a distraction from my torment: I devoted myself to my medicinal craft, and re-established my reputation as the Grave Stretch's wisest healer from the meager confines of the Sandy Glen." The Audino took a deep breath, and used it to give voice to her truest desire.

"The Circle was my home, and it was wrongfully taken from me. This land means more to me than you could possibly understand. This land was once my legacy. This land still bears my heritage. This land is not merely my birthright, but also a memorial to all of the Audino who toiled to make it a sanctum free of suffering and violent death." Steadying herself with heavy and slow breaths, the Audino faced her opposition, and declared her ultimatum in a voice both strong and certain.

"The Mightyena may not have been the ones to steal my home from me, but they now pollute the Circle's purpose with their savagery and bloodshed. I will not tolerate either in my land of peace and healing. I will not have their kind killing the wounded within my home."

The moot was silent for a moment, as the Gyarados weighed the Audino's case.

"And the Mightyena? You claim to depend upon this land for your survival?" The serpent spoke at last, and addressed the Alpha Mightyena in same firm tone that he had used with the Audino.

"Before the Packmaster allocated the Circle to my kind, the Mightyena were far fewer in number. Our Pack was not permitted to expand anymore than the other lesser Packs of the Grave Stretch. But after generations of loyal service and unswerving commitment to Absols' dominance, the noble Packmaster saw fit to reward our allegiance to the Absols. We alone of the Grave Stretch's lesser Packs were permitted to grow beyond the Packmaster's established boundaries, and so long as we continued to serve the interests of the Absols, we would not need fear a culling of our pups to ensure our Pack's future subservience." The Alpha Mightyena was both proud and passionate in the account of his Pack's history, and the serpent who played the role of mediator in this delegation listened intently with a fair ear.

"The Circle has served my Pack as a nursery for our countless pups. Here in this fertile land, do we hold claim to the only reliable source of clean water throughout the dry season for dozens upon dozens of miles on either side of the Circle. The wayward herds come to the Circle's shallow creek during the summer to drink, and with the meat of their great numbers, are our pups kept strong and fed." The implacable Alpha Mightyena fixed his red eyes upon the Healer, and firmly announced his ultimatum with a harsh voice.

"If the Circle is taken from us, then our pups will starve, and our Prides will grow parched. Our numbers will dwindle when we are claimed by starvation, dehydration, and the diseases born in weakening flesh. The Packmaster has abandoned us to our fate, and should we be deprived of our most bountiful of homes, hundreds of Mightyena will die from the agony known only in an empty stomach. I will not condemn my Pack to such a fate under any circumstances. I will fight to the death in order to defend my species from that wretched end."

The entire congress remained silent, as the pensive serpent weighed each account. Neither party had been shaken by the other's claim, and neither adversary would consider forfeiting the Circle without a fight.

"...So the Audino's claim comes from a want of justice, while the Mightyena's claim comes from a plea of necessity…" Solomon mused aloud.

" _This was my home, Solomon-!"_ The Healer hissed in fear of betrayal when she heard The Gyarados's muttered over simplification.

"I know that the Circle was your home, Healer. And it will be your home again." Solomon declared in an adamant voice, and the grim Pride of Mightyena drew together in preparation for an attack.

"...But it is also the Mightyena's home, and I will not abandon them to starvation." Solomon growled to the gloating Audino, and the war-ready Pride fell back with a start.

" _...Why would you defend us?!_ Why would you aid us when we have offered you nothing in return?!" The Alpha cried out in both his anger and confusion.

This made no sense! The Gyarados was their enemy! He was in league with the Healer! Why did he spurn her and favor them?!

"...I know the pains of an empty stomach, Alpha. I have experienced the desperation that such agony can drive one to. I would not wish that fate upon my worst enemy, and I most certainly couldn't condone that pain being made known to children." The Gyarados answered in a rumbling voice, as he strained his brain for a solution that would relieve his conscious of the encroaching despair.

Neither the Healer nor the Mightyena could find the voice required to contest the serpent's contradictory decision.

"...To hear both of your accounts, it all boils down to you both having access to a reliable source of water. The Healer requires the Circle's river for watering her berries and her wards, while the Mightyenas depend on the Circle's river to quench their thirst in the dry season and bait the herds. Am I correct in my assessment?" Solomon asked the moot beneath him.

"I cannot have the Mightyena trampling my berries and eating my customers, Solomon. And even should the Alpha swear himself to his Pack's restraint, I know better than to trust the words of a savage dog! This savanna cannot be home to both treacherous predators and wounded prey-" The Audino started in a fiery tirade, but the Alpha Mightyena cut her vehement spiel short.

"-I will not allow my Pack to suffer your ridiculous vision, Healer! I assign a far greater value to the life of a single Mightyena pup, than I do to an entire herd of Sawsbuck! If the Mightyena are to perish, then we will do so in the quickened death bestowed by battle! We will not die slowly, or without our dignity! We will fight to the very last-!"

"-ENOUGH!" Roared the thunderous Gyarados, and once more did his terrible voice silence the volatile night.

"...Healer? If I may request another map of you?" Solomon's angry voice died down into a ragged grumble. The Audino lifted her alarmed visage to the Gyarados's tired gaze, and mouthed her wordless confusion to his eyes.

"Please, Healer. A map of the Circle and its surrounding lands. If you can, include the topography and every substantial waterway that persists throughout the dry seasons." Solomon repeated his request, and petitioned for specifics relating to the Circle's seasonal plight.

"Do you doubt my claims, Gyarados? When the rains cease, and the long hanging sun broils the land, there will be no water-" The angry Alpha spoke up in challenge, but Solomon silenced him with a look.

"I do not doubt you, Alpha. I wish to visualize a landscape that I haven't seen yet." Solomon growled. The Healer grunted in exasperation, before lifting a pointed stone from the earth.

"Very well, Solomon. I will make you your map. My memory is a little hazy, so if the Alpha would be so kind as to assist me in charting the Circle's seasonal waterways…" The Healer spat, clearly disgusted by the thought of working alongside her enemy.

"Thank you, Healer. Alpha, will you assist the Audino? Doing so could prove favorable for you and your Pack." Solomon now turned to the stunned Pride, and the Alpha Mightyena could only stare at the great cerulean beast in sheer bewilderment.

"...Can I assume that your silence implies consent?" Solomon pressed, and the shocked Alpha quickly made his way over to the Healer's side.

All was quiet as the Healer carved a map into the damp, hard packed soil. Apart from a few corrections suggested by the Alpha Mightyena, not a word was spoken until the dawn's deep blue shades tinged the starry horizon with the new day's birth.

"Sol?" Karst asked in a timid voice as the great wyrm intently surveyed the Matron's nearly finished map.

"...What are you planning to do?" Karst asked in a worried voice. Solomon drew a deep breath, and released his wind in a weary sigh.

"...The Circle cannot be a land of healing should the Mightyena prey upon the wounded…" Solomon began, and all eyes and lifted towards the tired serpent's voice.

"...But the Mightyena need the water of the Circle to weather the dry season…" Solomon continued, bending low to examine the Circle's tributary with his single red eye.

"...So if the Mightyena cannot come to the Circle for its water, then we will have to bring the Circle's water to the Mightyena." Solomon finished, and the entire gathering froze in place.

"...And pray tell me… How will you bring the Circle's water to my Pack?" The Alpha Mightyena snarled in ridicule at the Gyarados's fantastical solution.

"By digging an irrigation system to concentrate the flow of water from the surrounding lands into a single area." Solomon replied in a growl, and even the Healer's jaw dropped in shock at his announcement.

"...And just who in the tenants of a forsaken Law will dig this impossible irrigation system for my Pack?" The Alpha spat, his derision renewed by Solomon's latest utterance.

"-Who do you think?" Grumbled the grudging serpent, as he measured the sheer extent of his self-imposed duty.

And following Solomon's ambitious pledge, not one voice among the gathered could overcome their wonder to challenge him again, even when the warbling songs of the Swablu heralded the fresh rise of the morning sun.

…

 _Once more do I close my eyes and see into his world of dreams. Once more do I return to this colorful and shapeless realm to answer the questions of God._

 _Yet this time, his golden-caged figure does not greet me with the thousands of voices. This time, his hundreds of white hands stay hidden beyond the border of waking. This time his red eyes neither weep not laugh at my audience._

 _This time, God is rendered speechless._

 _How?_

 _Thousands of awed voices ask me, with no context given to specify his question._

 _How? God asks me again in wonder._

 _How indeed? I reply to the stunned God before me._

 _He laughs now, in one short and amazed breath._

 _How have I conquered War?_

 _How have upset his balance, and yet maintained stability?_

 _How have I defied his immutable Law?_

 _Because I chose to. I answer God with a voice both calm and decisive._

 _And now God cannot cease his laughter. God cannot stem the tears of awe and mirth that fall from his red eyes._

 _He cannot believe what I have done. He cannot believe that I have rewritten the course of fate._

 _A side! God cries out, and my expression hardens in light of his euphoria._

 _I was supposed to chose a side! I was not supposed to defy and sate both ends of the opposed! He could not conceive of a means to defeat the necessity of War! God could not fathom a design to spare both the predator and the prey of his impartial Law!_

 _That's because God is weak. I hiss my venom over his laughter and praise._

 _God changes at once. No more laughter. No more tears of joy. No more words of praise._

 _Only guilt and remorse fill his red eyes, as he concedes to me my cruel verdict of him._

 _Yes, God is weak. He tells me in his shame, but I cannot pity him._

 _Had he but a whisper of my resolve, God would not have forfeited to War as readily as he had, back when he faced that same trial… God murmurs to me from across the dream._

 _I don't care. These words of mine are cold and callous. God looks up at me in distress._

 _I don't care about God's failings. I don't care about his guilt, his remorse, his shame, or his fate._

 _My actions are not committed on behalf of a God. My decisions are not finalized by the decree of God's influences._

 _I do not need a God to justify what is right. I do not need his abstract guidance to spread my own compassion._

 _God brought this world into chaos, and his responsibility has fallen to me, to correct this world of God's cruel design._

 _He laughs again, his mirth now soft and saddened._

 _I was right when I told God, so many dreams ago…_

 _...I was right when I told God that it wasn't I who needed him._

 _...It was God who needed me._

 _...Why are you so helpless, God? How can you care about this world, and yet not act to save it? I ask, setting aside my anger in order to satisfy my own curiosity. He laughs again, in those thousands of sad tongues, laughs in that sorrowful chorus of unspoken languages._

 _He can act. God tells me this. But just as I have chosen to act, so has he chosen not to._

 _Why?_

 _Yet again, I question the divine with the simplest of utterances._

 _Why does God chose not to act?_

 _And God deems himself fit to answer me._

 _...Because…_

 _...Because when God last chose to act, he set the template for this world's destruction. And every action that God has since enacted to amend that one divine act, has only served to hasten this world's impending ruin._

 _...God cannot save his own world from himself._

 _...So he entrusted me to do it for him._

 _I find it curious. This is what I state, as my voice grows leveled, and my tone is offered to God, void of my humors or my tempers._

 _It is curious that God would choose a servant who would defy him. It is curious that God would choose a servant that would deny him._

 _I find it curious that God chose a servant who would oppose him._

 _And that opposition is exactly what God wanted. He tells me so in the quiet storm of his thousands of voices._

 _God wanted an opposite to challenge his every design._

 _So am I the Devil to God's creation? I ask, and God looks to me with his loving red eyes._

 _Yes, I am his cherished Devil. I am his defiant servant. I am his passionate child, who in both my pride and grief, questions his every device._

 _I am the Devil to God's world, and I am his only hope for redemption._

 _So flattered am I to be your Devil, God. I can think of no more a noble role than that of your opposition._

 _Yes, I am God's adversary. I am the one who dares defy God. I am all that he opposes, just as he is all that I oppose._

 _But is there not some common ground between us, Devil?_

 _Can we not both love? Can we not both hate?_

 _Can we not both realize that without the other: God is just a fiction, and his Devil is but a figment?_

 _Are we nothing if not a reflection divided?_

 _Don't be ridiculous, God. Before I was your Devil, I was something else. I was free of God and his cursed world. It is God who stole everything that I was from me, everything except the cold hole left by my former life's absence, and for that lost identity…_

 _...For that murdered me…_

 _...I will never find it within myself to forgive God._

 _Very well then, Devil. God accepts your hatred. But if he may request at the very least: can God attempt to atone for his trespasses against me?_

 _Despite my admission, you still seek forgiveness, God? Well if that is the case, then answer your Devil's question. Answer me honestly, so that I may know if whether or not I can trust you._

 _And what question would you ask of God, Devil? What question can I answer that will bring you peace?_

 _My question, God? It is not so heavy a question, but it is a question that has plagued me ever since you first brought me here._

 _...When God first brought me here, and made me into the meekest of his creatures, he split me in twain, and set my two halves against one another. Why would God sever who I am into separate parts, and invoke chaos in my person with their disputes?_

 _Why would God break me, and not mend the division that he wrought?_

 _God smiles at me, for he is pleased with my question._

 _Why did God break me not once, but twice?_

 _The dream starts to fade, and God begins to disappear with his unfathomable realm, but before I wake to be surrounded by those I love, God gives his Devil the simple answer he requested._

 _...Because…_

 _...Because God has learned through his former trials, that one is most honest with one's self, when one's ears harken to both the voice of his heart and the voice of his mind…_

 _...And it is that same honesty that I learned from myself which has made me into God's cherished Devil._


End file.
